Page - 206 - in Mobile Culture Studies - The Journal, Volume 1/2015

206 Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal 1 2o15 Estela Schindel | Sea border crossing to Europe environmental conditions (like extreme temperatures or dangerous seas), to physiological col- lapse, or to a combination of the two, like drowning, dehydration, asphyxia or hypothermia.6 The waters of the Mediterranean perform the same function as the open desert at the US-Mexi- can border in the wake of “Operation Gatekeeper” implemented by Washington in the 1990s. Enhanced securitization measures, including the erection of a wall, did not deter migrants but forced them to take alternative routes through the desert, where they were exposed to death by “natural” factors such as extreme temperatures, dangerous rivers, attacks by wild animals, or through organic collapse caused by hunger, thirst or exhaustion. following Michel foucault’s (2003) conception of bio-power, people who are blocked at those border areas are exposed to death not as a consequence of direct killing but rather as a conse- quence of a power that manifests itself through the faculty of making live and letting die. It is not death by assassination but through abandonment to the elements, through being taken into a zone of mere biological existence or bare life. Insofar as restrictive immigration policies 6 It has been estimated that more than 19000 persons died between 1988 and 2011 along the European external borders. 2013 was believed to have been the deathliest year since then (for 2014 the figure may reveal to be hig- her). Experts estimate that “for every dead body washed up on the shores of the developed world, there are at least two others that are never recovered” (Weber and Pickering 2011, 1). Fig. 2. Memorial to drowned refugees on Cape Karakas, Lesvos Island. Photo taken on September 22, 2013 by Estela Schindel