“The Sea is History”: Migrant Disappearance/Death at Sea and Border Violence en Route to the Canary Islands
The Canary Islands have witnessed a surge in unauthorised boat immigration and disappearance/death at sea. This research aims to explore migrant death/disappearance and border violence along the route to the archipelago; one at a critical juncture of the EU's external border, entangled with long histories of (post)colonial e/im/circular migration, with journeys that often overlap today's, and at the intersection of Europe-America/Abya Yala/Africa.
Its main working research questions are, "How do Canarian communities -including migrants/journey survivors- mediate, experience, respond to, and *witness* border violence and migrant death/disappearance at sea?"; "How are they *affected* by the ocean surrounding them being turned into 'an open grave,' weaponized to disappear, swallow up, leave no *traces*?".
By conducting ethnographic research in the archipelago, it aims to soak into the materiality of the water/the ocean, interviewing community members engaged with the Western Atlantic (border enforcement agencies, search-and-rescue workers, seafarers...), articulating a project that engages with the sublime and ineffable of the ocean. To do so, it will think with literature in decolonial, critical border and island/ocean studies, and Black poetry, producing cartographic visualisations, gathering evidence of violence, and engaging with visual methods such as photography/filmmaking.
The goal of this project is to advance critical migration and border scholarship, engage with archipelago communities, and challenge (post-)colonial logics of control and im/mobility, while amplifying marginalised voices, rekindling attention to death/disappearance at sea, and informing more empathetic and transparent policies on migration and border governance.