Paper short abstract:

This article analyzes how the proclamation of the migration crisis in the Canary Islands was used to halt the mobilities of unauthorized migrants towards continental Europe against their will, and how these undesired immobility regimes were contested from below.

Paper long abstract:

Rules and regimes of immobilization proliferate in times of proclaimed migration crises. In 2020, the unauthorized arrival of migrants was categorized as a "migration crisis", and the Spanish government, in agreement with the European Union, tried to immobilize these people in the Canary Islands, contravening the rules that allow free mobility in Spain and the Schengen area. The lack of coordination of the reception system, the deficiency of facilities and protocols, as well as the exceptional immobility measures taken during the pandemic, have had profound effects on how the mobility and immobility of these migrants have been regulated in practice. In this article, we analyze this “undesired immobilization” produced in the Canary Islands in response to an increase in the unauthorized arrival of migrants by sea from West Africa between 2018 and 2023. Analyzing this as a part of the proclaimed "migration crisis", we identify five regimes of immobility —exceptional, humanitarian, racist, bureaucratic, and carceral—that operate within a European im/mobility regime. Jointly these increase the precariousness of unauthorized migrants in connection with their origin, race, gender, religion, and social class, pushing them to greater risks in their journeys, immobilizing them in their transits, and frightening them with deportation. We also stress that this is only one part of the story. These regimes and their rules of undesired immobilization are resisted and confronted autonomously by migrants and activist allies, directly or with more subterfuge actions, trespassing the hurdles and moving forward physically and existentially, as they desire.