Migration Governance in the Mediterranean: The Siracusa Experience

This paper combines the ‘local turn’ in the study of migration policy with the ‘practice turn’ in EU studies by analysing the humanitarian practices applied in the Sicilian city of Siracusa in the years 2013-2018. The primary interest of this research is to explore the practices by which the local community responded to the migration crisis in the Mediterranean and the contribution provided to migration governance by border cities such as Siracusa. It seeks to test the hypothesis that local communities are better apt to react to the emergency. While scholarly attention has focused extensively on the explanation of the multiple causes of migration as a global phenomenon, the practices adopted to manage migration still deserve investigation. Migration governance relies upon practices, i.e. competent performances, existing or emerging ‘on the ground’, to effectively address the phenomenon. By deconstructing the dynamics involving the European Union, decentring the study of migration governance in the Mediterranean allows us to go beyond the lack of EU policy-response to explore the local levels where politics takes place. Drawing on interviews with local actors, or international and national ones acting locally, the article explores the interaction among stakeholders in a practical context where actors, as members of a ‘community of practice’, are involved in a process of ‘learning by doing’. Empirical research demonstrates that the actors’ role in addressing the crisis, their ideas and know-how, have shaped migration governance and developed community practices in a process of ‘learning by doing’. It suggests further empirical research to test whether an emergency operational model – consisting of competent performances, routine practices and procedures to be adopted in other areas and cases, has emerged in this Sicilian border city.