Beyond the Crisis Frame: Structural Insecurity and the Moral Politics of Displacement in European and North African Border Regimes

Abstract

Structural insecurity is a central though overlooked force shaping contemporary displacement. Beyond conflict and climate change, displacement emerges from intersecting regimes of governance, including European Union border securitization, North African state collaborations, and racialized migration controls in North America and Western Europe. While these regimes differ in scope, they converge in producing precarity through selective hospitality and exclusion. This article, informed by abolitionist and decolonial thought, examines how displacement is legitimized as social regulation through restrictive asylum laws, securitized media narratives, and public discourses that naturalize insecurity. Responsibility lies not with a single actor but across states, supranational institutions, and financial bodies enforcing austerity. We argue that ethical responses require dismantling the infrastructures of displaceability by reallocating resources away from border militarization, supporting regional mobility accords grounded in equity, and pursuing reparative justice for communities most affected. Such measures move research and governance beyond crisis management toward collective futures of dignity, belonging, and liberation.