Portugal
Unlike the other case studies, Portugal is neither the main destination for refugees and new migrants, nor a target of terrorist attacks. Its peripheral status in terms of the securitization processes that surrounded migration within the EU over the past decade however does not mean that it has been immune to said processes.
Germany: Cologne
The sexual assaults reported during the 2015 New Year’s Eve in Cologne and other German cities prompted heated debates in Germany about migration, asylum, multiculturalism, Islam, feminism, the ethics of media reporting, the securitization of public spaces, and the criminal law relating to sexual offenses.
France & United Kingdom
Both countries have a long exposure to the risk of terrorism and with experience in the area of counterterrorism. In France, the 2015 Paris attacks were perceived as a landmark in the country’s attitudes towards national security.
Italy: Lampedusa and the Mediterranean
As semiotic spaces/polysemic borders, Lampedusa and the Mediterranean represent the hyper- real functioning (or dysfunctioning) of border control.
