ResearchPod Summary
This paper challenges the prevailing view of the 2015 European refugee crisis as a sudden, isolated rupture in the social order. Instead, the author proposes the analytical framework of the coloniality of migration, which connects contemporary asylum and migration policies to the long-standing history of European colonialism, imperialism, and racial capitalism. By applying Anibal Quijano’s concept of the coloniality of power, the study demonstrates how modern states continue to use racialized nomenclature and hierarchical categorization to manage, exclude, or exploit migrant populations.
The author argues that modern migration policies are not neutral administrative tools but are deeply embedded in the history of settler colonialism and transatlantic migration. During the 19th and 20th centuries, nations in the Americas and Oceania explicitly used immigration policies to prioritize white European settlers while excluding non-white populations to foster national development and industrial progress. This historical legacy of racial coding persists in post-1945 Western Europe, where the asylum-migration nexus functions as a mechanism to regulate the workforce and maintain white hegemony. The paper highlights how the figure of the refugee is frequently reduced to a potential low-wage worker, echoing the objectification of labor forces seen in colonial plantation economies.
A central theme of the paper is the role of media and political discourse in constructing the refugee as a 'floating signifier' for the anxieties of the white national population. By examining the media spectacle surrounding events like the 2015/16 New Year’s Eve incidents in Cologne, the author illustrates how racialized tropes—such as the 'premodern' or 'dangerous' migrant male—are mobilized to justify restrictive border policies and the dismantling of humanitarian protections. This process of 'moral panic' allows governments to divert attention from structural economic issues and consolidate support for authoritarian, nationalist agendas.
Understanding migration through the lens of coloniality shifts the focus from viewing refugees as a burden to recognizing them as subjects within a global system of exploitation. By exposing the continuity between colonial practices and contemporary border control, the paper provides a critical tool for researchers and activists to challenge the racialized logic that underpins current European migration regimes and to advocate for a more equitable approach to human mobility.
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