Book presentation "Borders and freedom of movement" by Fabian Georgi

For around four decades, Europe has been sealing itself off from refugees and migration, interrupted only by the 'summer of migration' in 2015. Driven by the rise of right-wing authoritarian forces, centrist parties are also supporting a migration policy that goes far beyond fundamental and human rights standards. A dystopian fortress capitalism is taking on ever sharper contours, characterized by border fences and rejections, camps and mass deportations. At the same time, many people are still shocked by the thousands of deaths at European borders every year and angry at the moral coldness with which Germany and the EU delegate their migration controls to dictatorships and militias. And many in the Global North still know and criticize the fact that their own privileged way of life is being defended at the heavily fortified borders against those who were less fortunate than themselves in the lottery of birthplace.

Against this ambivalent background,Fabian Georgi discusses the idea of 'global freedom of movement' as an emancipatory project and as a core component of socio-ecological transformation. Starting from the role of borders in capitalism and a materialist ethics of migration, he examines the problems and challenges of the concrete utopia of open borders: What are the conditions and consequences of a politics of freedom of movement? What would be the starting points for practical action?