Questioning externalisation: the sovereigntist turn, and the reconfiguring migration governance in the roaring 2020s

BIM Seminar Series. Guest Speaker: Luca RAINERI, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies

Abstract: During the 2020s, global and regional transformations have profoundly reshaped migration dynamics and governance at Europe's borders. As migration flows resumed in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, sovereigntist governments have consolidated power on both sides of the Mediterranean, including in Italy, Libya, Tunisia, and the Sahel. Against this backdrop, the presentation critically interrogates the analytical purchase of the externalisation paradigm, which has long dominated scholarly interpretations of EU migration and border control in the past decades. In an increasingly multipolar and contested international order, the diffusion of power, agency, norms, and technologies no longer aligns with the hierarchical imaginary underpinning externalisation. Leveraging policy analysis and extensive qualitative data collected in European and African countries along the Central Mediterranean Route, the discussion conceptualises recent developments as a sovereigntist turn in migration governance, characterised by the resurgence of bilateral and mini-lateral diplomacy, the erosion of liberal conditionalities, the narrowing of migration governance into containment and return practices, and a shift from data sharing to claims of data sovereignty.

Bio: Dr Luca Raineri is Assistant Professor in security studies. His research draws on critical security and conflict studies, and investigates in particular transnational phenomena of security relevance (trafficking, crime, terrorism) with reference to Africa, European borders, and EU external action in general. Since 2010, he has been engaged in several field research missions in Mali, Niger, Tunisia and Senegal. He is the author of numerous scientific publications in international academic journals, contributions in books and monographs - including, most recently, La Crisi Libica e l'Ordine Internazionale (ed. Carocci, 2022).

Registration required: https://forms.office.com/e/yY5sQ4x50F?origin=lprLink

Wednesday, May 6th, 2026, from12:00 to 2:00 pm

BIM - REPI - Recherche et Etudes en Politique Internationale