How to disappear completely - Hannah Arendt and the European Union's politics on migration
Author
Hvass, Anders Colstrup
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2020
Submitted on
2020-05-28
Pages
38
Abstract
This thesis examines how the European Union’s migration politics and practices can be understood through Hannah Arendt’s theory of totalitarianism and the human condition. Using a theoretical-analytical approach, it applies Arendt’s ideas on the “right to have rights,” the public/private realm, and human vulnerability to state power to explore the relationship between people on the move and the EU as a supranational authority. The excerpt outlines a case focused on the EU’s bureaucratic and judicial handling of migration, including border externalization to Italy and Greece, harmonization of member-state laws, biometric systems, privatized border control, and expanded digital surveillance. It highlights how crisis discourse and states of emergency may normalize exceptional measures, and how documents and registration divide “legal” from “illegal” migrants, risking statelessness, differentiated citizenship, invisibility, and what Giorgio Agamben calls “bare life.” The aim is to assess whether and how EU approaches echo tendencies Arendt associates with totalitarian logics by constraining access to rights for some migrants. The excerpt provides no methodological details beyond the theoretical framework and does not yet present results or conclusions.
Specialet undersøger, hvordan EU’s politik og praksis over for migranter kan forstås gennem Hannah Arendts teori om totalitarisme og den menneskelige tilstand. Med udgangspunkt i en teoretisk-analytisk tilgang anvendes Arendts begreber om “retten til at have rettigheder”, offentlig/privat sfære og menneskets sårbarhed over for statslig magt til at belyse relationen mellem migrerende mennesker og den supranationale EU-institution. Uddraget skitserer en case om EU’s bureaukratiske og juridiske håndtering af migration, herunder grænseeksternalisering til især Italien og Grækenland, harmonisering af medlemsstaters lovgivning, brug af biometriske systemer, privatiseret grænsekontrol og udvidet digital overvågning. Der peges på, hvordan kriseretorik og undtagelsestilstand kan normalisere ekstraordinære foranstaltninger, og hvordan dokumenter og registrering skaber skel mellem “lovlige” og “ulovlige” migranter, med risiko for statsløshed, differentieret medborgerskab, usynliggørelse og det, Giorgio Agamben kalder “bart liv”. Formålet er at vurdere, om og hvordan EU’s tilgange kan afspejle tendenser, Arendt forbinder med totalitære logikker, ved at reducere enkelte migranters adgang til rettigheder. Uddraget rummer ikke metodiske detaljer ud over den teoretiske ramme og præsenterer endnu ingen resultater eller konklusioner.
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