Introduction

This book contributes to migration and security studies alike by examining the transformation of migration governance across the Central Mediterranean Route connecting Sub-Saharan Africa to Europe through Italy.

Leveraging this migratory corridor in historical and comparative perspective, the volume provides a multidisciplinary reappraisal of securitization theory, highlighting how different fields such as anthropology, history, visual semiotics, and science and technology studies can enrich, reappraise, and decentralize this paradigm.

Far from merely exploring the different ways migration is framed as a threat after the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the volume systematically dissects the interplay between discourses and border enforcement practices as well as the diffusion of migration governance models worldwide, pushing securitization theory beyond security studies.