Conferences and debates
Index / Activities / Conferences and debates / The Atlantic route of the Mediterranean: the African-Canarian "necrocorridor"
The Atlantic route of the Mediterranean: the African-Canarian "necrocorridor"
January 27, 20267:00 p.m.
MADRID
Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62).
7:00 p.m.
Free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.
In English, with simultaneous translation into Spanish.
We resume the sessions of the University Arabic Classroom 7 series with this eighth lecture, given by Mohammed Ouhemmou, professor at Ibn Zohr University in Agadir (Morocco). It will take place on Tuesday, 27 January in Madrid. Come and see it or follow it live on YouTube.
This lecture focuses on one of the most deadly corridors in the Mediterranean: the African-Canarian Atlantic route, which can take 1,600 km and several weeks of navigation. If migration corridors in a broader sense refer to the routes taken by migrants, which can be influenced by various factors, including geopolitical, social and environmental conditions, the concept of "necrocorridors" could imply routes that are particularly dangerous or deadly for migrants. This means that not all migration corridors are necrocorridors.
Therefore, we are interested in proposing a model that can help us understand the processes of necrocorridor formation. Namely, what are the conditions that make a corridor a particular necrocorridor, and then to contribute to the already broader debate on necropolitics. By highlighting the specificity of the Canary Corridor, we will combine necropolitics with Butler's suggestive theory of grievability to discuss how structural, political and media neglect serve to systematically prevent mourning and remembrance. Also we will take some arguments put forward by global justice debates.
The chapter will have three main parts. A more conceptual and theoretical one, in which we will introduce the category of necropolitics and justify why the Canary Island corridor is particularly illustrative. A second part, in which the methodology and data sources will be presented, together with the theoretical model of the necrocorridor that we are trying to construct. And then a third part, more evidence-based, where we will try to propose a model of the necrocorridor using the data and ethnographic information from an empirical study. The basic argument we will put forward is that a necrocorridor is politically constructed and banalised by the same politics that provoke it, together with the media and public opinion.
Organised in collaboration with the IEMed's Aula Mediterrània programme and the Master's Degree in International Relations and African Studies at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Marta Iñiguez, professor and coordinator of the programme, will participate and introduce the speaker on behalf of the programme Olivia Orozco, Training and Economics Coordinator at Casa Árabe, will moderate the session.
Mohammed Ouhemmou is an assistant professor at Ibn Zohr University in Agadir, Morocco. His fields of interest include public policy analysis, migration and internationalization policies. His research investigates the link between foreign policy and the politics of mobility. He has published a number of articles on international mobility and migration policies in Morocco and North Africa, including “Tense Neighbors, Algeria and Morocco Have Divergent Migration Histories” (2023), “Migration, Governance and Geopolitical Conflicts in Africa: A Comparative Analysis of Moroccan Algerian Migration Policies” (2021), “Moroccan Migration and Integration Policy: The Intersection of Culture and Public Policy Making” (2020), and “Comparative Analysis of Migration Policies and Social Transformations in the MENA Region” (2020). Mr. Ouhemmou is also interested in policies of educational mobility from sub-Saharan Africa into Morocco and he particularly focuses on how African students in Moroccan universities navigate symbolic and social borders.
