Migration surveillance and control at Alpine borders

The thesis is entitled Militarisation de l’espace, rapports spatiaux de race et de classe à la frontière franco-italienne : une géohistoire du contrôle des ” indésirables ” dans les Alpes du Sud.

This work examines the border zone created by an increased police and military presence on the borders of national territories as a producer of differentiated spatial relationships between foreign populations crossing the Alps, according to their social class and “race”, since the identification of nationality is carried out on the basis of phenotype, i.e. the appearance of individuals.

This thesis looks at the incorporation of control practices and technologies into mountain space, linking police techniques to the “security” urbanization of territories. The latter contribute to the construction of a differentiated mountain space, of leisure and pleasure for some, and of danger, tracking and escape for others, questioning the persistence of certain forms of coloniality within the contemporary border zones of the Schengen area.