| dc.description.abstract | Today, we increasingly see the European Union attempting to move border controls and migration management beyond the Mediterranean and into countries along the coast of North Africa and Asia Minor. The return of migrants intercepted and rescued at sea to a network of EU-financed migrant detention centers in countries like Turkey and Libya, is quickly becoming the desired norm from a European perspective. This thesis focuses on the latter case of Libya, were Italy is spearheading these policies. The thesis explores Italo-Libyan colonial history going back to the Italian conquest of Libya from the Ottoman Empire, forcibly drawing the area into Italy’s political and social orbit and setting the stage for a later imbalanced relationship. In subsequent chapters we see how the two economies of Italy and Libya were tied to each other through joint oil extraction in the post-war era. The thesis goes on to investigate how a more restrictive Italian migration regime came about in the 1980s and 1990s, both as a result of domestic political changes and the demands to strengthen border security in order to join the Schengen system. The final chapter brings these strands together, focusing on the late 1990s and 2000s and a series of treaties between Libya on the one side and Italy on the other (supported by the EU). These agreements connected the colonial past with promises of increased economic collaboration and political acknowledgement, in return for Libya taking on the role as Europe’s gatekeeper. The continued presence and importance of the Italo-Libyan colonial history runs through all the phases of this thesis. This continuity can be broken down into a continuity of interests, colonial infrastructure, continuity in terms of the companies and personnel involved, as well as continuity in how certain aspects of colonial attitudes and management were retained. Findings are based on both primary archive material, a close reading of the treaty texts, interviews with professional who have long experience in Libya (otherwise a “black box” due to the security situation) and a wide array of secondary literature from across academic disciplines, critically examined and put into historical context. Ultimately this thesis shows how the EU, contrary to the common view of it being a “counter-institution” to the previous colonial projects of some of its member states, allowed colonial history to inform its present migration policies in the Mediterranean. | eng |