Externalized Within, Everyday Bordering Processes Affecting Undocumented Moroccans in the Borderlands of Ceuta and Melilla, Spain

Nina Sahraoui

Journal of Borderlands Studies, 2024, vol. 39, issue 5, 855-874

Abstract: This article proposes the notion of ‘externalized within’ to trace the implications of Ceuta and Melilla becoming frontlines of Fortress Europe in the context of entrenched postcolonial hierarchies. While building on previous contributions around ‘internal externalization’, this article goes beyond the policy analogy that led to the coining of this phrase in order to focus on the social implications of this phenomenon in terms of everyday bordering. This article explores how exclusionary policies specific to Spanish borderlands impede undocumented migrants from accessing social services through concrete legal, economic and social barriers, leading them to become ‘externalized within’. The cases of children’s admission to school and pregnant women’s access to healthcare are highly symbolic issues, as these groups tend to be portrayed as vulnerable and tend to benefit from some forms of inclusion both in mainland Spain and many other European settings. In the context of Ceuta and Melilla, the marginalisation of undocumented Moroccans is intensified by the divisive effects of border fortification, to be seen in the weaponizing of basic social services. The article relies on qualitative fieldwork conducted with undocumented Moroccan women, NGO members, social workers and healthcare professionals and managers in 2016 and 2017.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1080/08865655.2023.2229838

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