Daniela DeBono
European University Institute, Global Governance Program, Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies (RSCAS), Fellowship (COFAS Marie Curie)
Daniela is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Malta. She is also Research Affiliate at the Malmo Institute for the Studies of Migration, Welfare and Diversity. She has worked at several migration centres: at the Malmö Institute for the Studies of Migration, Welfare and Diversity (MIM), Malmö University, held a Marie Curie COFAS Research Fellowship at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, and at the Sussex Centre for Migration Research, University of Sussex.
She has conducted long-term ethnographic research on border crossings across the Mediterranean, with a focus on the treatment of new arrivals and the infrastructures of border control and humanitarian management in Malta, Lampedusa and Western Sicily. She also undertook an ethnographic study on deportation from Sweden.
Daniela is the country expert for Malta at the Global Citizenship Observatory, and has authored a series of reports on citizenship law and policy, naturalisation and access to electoral rights.
She is also an activist contributing to the work of SAR Malta, KOPIN, the Diocesan Justice and Peace Commission, and the Coalition for the El Hiblu 3.
She has conducted long-term ethnographic research on border crossings across the Mediterranean, with a focus on the treatment of new arrivals and the infrastructures of border control and humanitarian management in Malta, Lampedusa and Western Sicily. She also undertook an ethnographic study on deportation from Sweden.
Daniela is the country expert for Malta at the Global Citizenship Observatory, and has authored a series of reports on citizenship law and policy, naturalisation and access to electoral rights.
She is also an activist contributing to the work of SAR Malta, KOPIN, the Diocesan Justice and Peace Commission, and the Coalition for the El Hiblu 3.
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Peer reviewed articles and chapters by Daniela DeBono
European territory connect and fold into each other in complex ways.
political point of view. The aim is not to provide an exhaustive discussion of either, but to provoke further thinking on the impact on people’s health – in other words, on the way they serve, directly or indirectly, to limit or violate forced
migrants’ access to their right to health at a particularly vulnerable period during their trajectory.
work that challenges EU border practices and concomitant categories to
reimagine a more welcoming Europe.
For the full abstract see: https://academic.oup.com/migration/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/migration/mnz015/5488167?redirectedFrom=fulltext
Retornando y deportando migrantes irregulares: no es una solución a la “crisis de refugiados”
Este articulo cuestiona si la presentación del retorno y de la deportación de los migrantes irregulares como una solución a la llamada “crisis de refugiados” es ética. Legalmente, el retorno de los migrantes irregulares puede ser una actividad legítima por parte del Estado, pero la presión actual por la Comisión Europea sobre los Estados miembros de aumentar la tasa actual del 40 por ciento de retornos efectivos puede conducirlos a que operen retornos por debajo de los estándares mínimos de derechos humanos en un intento de aumentar la tasa. El conocimiento detallado del impacto de los retornos – incluyendo la deportación desde y hacia diferentes países – sobre el bienestar de los migrantes y los derechos humanos es escaso. Basado en estudios sobre retornos desde Estados miembros de la UE hacia diferentes países, presento tres argumentos. En primer lugar, debido a la complejidad del proceso de retorno, las estadísticas deben de ser analizadas con más profundidad. En segundo lugar, hay problemas conceptuales claves que sustentan la política actual de los retornos en la UE. En tercer lugar, la investigación indica fuertemente que los retornos pueden rendir vulnerables a las personas. En ausencia de un conocimiento profundo sobre los efectos del retorno de los migrantes, concluyo con un llamado para que los retornos sean tratados con precaución y que su vinculación con la crisis de refugiados sea evitada.
Books by Daniela DeBono
European territory connect and fold into each other in complex ways.
political point of view. The aim is not to provide an exhaustive discussion of either, but to provoke further thinking on the impact on people’s health – in other words, on the way they serve, directly or indirectly, to limit or violate forced
migrants’ access to their right to health at a particularly vulnerable period during their trajectory.
work that challenges EU border practices and concomitant categories to
reimagine a more welcoming Europe.
For the full abstract see: https://academic.oup.com/migration/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/migration/mnz015/5488167?redirectedFrom=fulltext
Retornando y deportando migrantes irregulares: no es una solución a la “crisis de refugiados”
Este articulo cuestiona si la presentación del retorno y de la deportación de los migrantes irregulares como una solución a la llamada “crisis de refugiados” es ética. Legalmente, el retorno de los migrantes irregulares puede ser una actividad legítima por parte del Estado, pero la presión actual por la Comisión Europea sobre los Estados miembros de aumentar la tasa actual del 40 por ciento de retornos efectivos puede conducirlos a que operen retornos por debajo de los estándares mínimos de derechos humanos en un intento de aumentar la tasa. El conocimiento detallado del impacto de los retornos – incluyendo la deportación desde y hacia diferentes países – sobre el bienestar de los migrantes y los derechos humanos es escaso. Basado en estudios sobre retornos desde Estados miembros de la UE hacia diferentes países, presento tres argumentos. En primer lugar, debido a la complejidad del proceso de retorno, las estadísticas deben de ser analizadas con más profundidad. En segundo lugar, hay problemas conceptuales claves que sustentan la política actual de los retornos en la UE. En tercer lugar, la investigación indica fuertemente que los retornos pueden rendir vulnerables a las personas. En ausencia de un conocimiento profundo sobre los efectos del retorno de los migrantes, concluyo con un llamado para que los retornos sean tratados con precaución y que su vinculación con la crisis de refugiados sea evitada.
the Swedish and EU levels is provided to contextualise the data and conclusions. What can we learn from these migrant experiences of the Swedish forced returns system, a system which has been both highly commended in some areas while critiqued in others?
Deportation is increasingly being discussed from a social and global justice point of view, as well as from a human rights point of view. It is therefore of critical importance that migrant voices are heard and their experiences analysed. The 2009 European Return Directive, transposed into Swedish law in 2012, states that deportation and pre-removal detention should be conducted with respect to fundamental human rights, or in other words, in a ‘humane and dignified’ manner. But what is a ‘humane and dignified’ deportation? Is it an oxymoron in itself? This book does not claim to answer this question, but merely contributes to the debate through an analysis of migrant narratives. The afterword by UNHCR Nansen Award winner Dr. Katrine Camilleri reflects on the results of the study by juxtaposing it with her own work in Malta and primes a wider discussion of the topic by putting the Swedish case in the broader context of European Union trends.
Based on a reading of foundational documents of the modern human rights movement, especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the thesis posits that human rights should be ‘located’ between the political and the cultural. The four basic principles of human rights identified as framing the optimal political conditions for the nurturing of a human rights culture are related to dignity, a cosmopolitan orientation, democratic practice and a commitment to equality.
This concept of a human rights culture is innovatively used as an analytical tool for examining Maltese responses to irregular migration. This is done in a two-way manner, with the examination of practice enriching the identified theoretical framework, and the theoretical framework then guiding the search for possible new human-rights-consistent policy directions which Malta could take.
Drawing on a range of ethnographic methods, including in-depth interviews and participant observation, this study brings to light the difficulties of putting into practice human rights principles within an already established local culture grappling with its own ghosts like occupations and colonial experiences. Although resistance to change is often difficult to identify since it is shrouded in ‘modern’ language, hidden under security arguments or bureaucratic explanations. Interviews and a range of documents illustrate the multi-layered misconceptions, stereotypes and fear that play out among the Maltese.
The article can be freely accessed on this link: http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/world/73043/2017_immigration_crisis_of_human_rights