“SHUT-MED: Securitizing Human Transit across the Central Mediterranean migratory corridor: shifting mobility governance discourses and practices in Italy, Malta, Libya, and Niger” is a 24-month research project led by prof. Eugenio Cusumano, University of Messina and by Dr. Luca Raineri, with the support of postdoctoral researcher Dr. Chiara Loschi, both at Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, DIRPOLIS Institute. The project is financed by Italian Ministry of University and Research in the frame of National program “Programma Nazionale di Ricerca e Progetti di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale (PRIN)” (Research - Grant N. 2022NKLAFW, CUP J53D23005760006).

The flow of people along the Central Mediterranean Route (CMR) is on the rise again, and the phenomenon has major policy (security) and scholarly (securitization theory) implications. Existing research, however, appears poorly equipped to grasp the latest empirical and theoretical developments. The SHUT-MED project offers a groundbreaking contribution to security and migration studies through a number of empirical, methodological, and theoretical innovations. SHUT-MED examines how human mobility across the Central Mediterranean Route (CMR) has been securitized between 2000 and 2023, why the framing of migrants as threats has changed across countries and over time, and the impact of such processes on the practices enacted by migration governance stakeholders operating at the borders of Niger, Libya, Malta, and Italy. By tracing how migration discourses and practices diffuse across actors, countries, and borders along the Central Mediterranean route through externalization and privatization, SHUT-MED does not only examine the governance of human mobility, but also the mobility of human mobility governance. SHUT-MED adopts an inter-disciplinary approach informed by mixed-methods, both quantitative and qualitative, to address a set of inter-related research questions: What actors are involved in mobility governance along the CMR? What institutions shape their interactions? What discourses both textual and visual does each of these actors develop and disseminate? What practices and technologies do they deploy?

• Vice PI: Dr. Luca Raineri, DIRPOLIS Institute
• Postdoctoral researcher: Dr. Chiara Loschi, DIRPOLIS institute