The Crises Effect
The Crises Effect

Global Moral Obligations, National Interventions, and the Figure of the Pitiful/Abusive Migrant

Summary/Abstract: A crisis – once perceived as a decisive moment of intense difficulty and danger – is increasingly being seen as a protracted experience, even as part of everyday life. The multiple crises of the Eurozone, as well as the armed conflicts in Iraq, Syria and the Ukraine, have recently caused global concern. The condition of emergency has seemingly become a continuous companion of global entanglement and neoliberal policies. Nonetheless, as soon as a certain situation is framed in terms of a crisis, debate becomes heated and allows for interventions that are unlikely to occur under “normal” conditions. Against this background I aim for a shift of the analytical framework, or, more precisely, instead of focussing on the descriptions of a certain crisis, humanitarian interventions, global responses and/or the victims’ agency, I will discuss the effects of crises in relation to the distribution of power. I will investigate the crisis of multiculturalism in the EU and compare its effects with border and refugee crises. I will show how a “crisis” powerfully contributes to the construction of a particular object of knowledge, and shapes moral obligations as well as political and legal responses. Departing from contested transnational moral responsibilities and state interventions, I will discuss the “crisis effect” as a contribution to “repressive autonomy” and “lethal borders”.

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