A “european” externalisation strategy? A transnational perspective on aid, border regimes, and the EU Trust Fund for Africa in Morocco

Abstract

[Abstract]: This paper questions the existence of a European externalisation front as a coherent and unified process. Instead, it advances a complex understanding of the political dynamics surrounding the externalisation of European borders as embedded in development cooperation and aid policies. Drawing on the concepts of transnational social field and transnational governmentality, we examine the case of the EU Trust Fund for Africa and development projects funded in Morocco in the field of migration. The implementation of development cooperation funds in Morocco stands as a case in point for understanding what externalisation means on the ground, as it shows the performance of heterogeneous cooperation strategies that resemanticise the North-South divide in the role played by European countries. Our analysis attempts to illustrate these changes by first examining Morocco’s reconfiguration in the EU’s funding allocation strategy –shifting to more or less central positions depending on punctual “migration crises”. Second, discussing the process of EU delegated cooperation and the NGO-isation of EU Member States. Thirdly, by considering the agency countries from the Global South can deploy through the migration diplomacy, shaping even the implementation of migration containment projects funded by the EU or its Member States.