Diana VOLPE

Bio

Diana Volpe is a postdoctoral Wiener-Anspach Fellow at REPI, Université libre de Bruxelles. Their research project focuses on the offshore administrative detention and border control. They gained their DPhil from the University of Oxford, where their research focused on the process of legitimation of outsourcing of migration control operations in the Mediterranean within the Italian political sphere, and the use of migration control discourse for national identity building. Their research has been supported by Graduate Women International, the Luigi Einaudi Foundation, and the Wiener-Anspach Foundation.

They have (co-)taught courses on International Relations, Migration and Development and the Politics of Forced Migration at the University of Oxford.

Diana is also the Managing Editor of the Border Criminologies blog, and student chair of the board of trustees for People and Planet. They hold a BA in Politics and International Relations from University College Dublin, and an MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies from the University of Oxford.

Research presentation

In November 2023, Italy and Albania signed an agreement allowing Italy to transfer asylum seekers to Albania, to process their claims under accelerated procedures in ad-hoc built reception centres (“offshore processing”). If successful, Italy will pave the way for a new form of externalisation at the EU borders for other Member States to follow. How did this come about, and what implications does it have on asylum? This research project traces the coming into fruition of this deal, its ongoing development in the courts, and, if applicable, its operation in practice. It explores how offshoring policies in migration control are produced and enacted.

Areas of interest

• Border Criminologies
• Colonial continuities of border control
• Critical approaches to migration control and security
• Immigration detention
• Empirical analysis of legitimacy, public opinion, and border control

Selected publications

• Volpe, D. (2024) “The lessons Labour can learn from Italy’s migration policies are simple: they are harmful, short-sighted, and ineffective.”, Border Criminologies Blog. Available here.
• Volpe, D. (2023) “The New Old Italian Approach to Migration: Criminalisation of Everything.” (2023). Border Criminologies blog. Available here.