Page - 71 - in Mobile Culture Studies - The Journal, Volume 2/2016

Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal 2 2o16 Tony Kushner | Lampedusa and the Migrant Crisis 71 who meet tragic fates crossing the Indian Ocean’.50 In all these cases, security and economic fears have run alongside humanitarian concern. In the case of the Jewish ‘illegal’ immigration, the British tried (and largely failed) to impress the world that those embar- king on such journeys, and especially the orga- nisers, were doing so at the expense of genu- ine, legitimate refugees. Today, similar dynamics are at work with the focus of European and other Western organisations and politicians being on the ‘criminal’ smugglers and the need to curtail their activities, including the destruction of boats used to carry the migrants. If those used to transport Jewish migrants in and after the Nazi era were larger vessels well beyond their useful life, many of those today are tiny, described as being like the ones ‘children used to play with on the beach. They are really just toys’.51 Retur- ning to Lampedusa, since Cuttitta wrote, the detention centre has become closed to visitors and supporters of the migrants, isolating them from the largely positive response of the islanders to their presence. In a further attempt to render the migrants invisible, the coast guard boats bringing in the migrants and then sending them on to Sicily arrive and depart late at night.52 Representation Self-consciously, Cuttitta’s Lampedusa ‘play’ provides only a walk-on part for the migrants themselves. Consideration will now be given to their perspectives and performativity, alongside the wider representation (including self-representation) of their experiences and those of the island/islanders as a whole. It will be argued that comparing the situation to the 1930s/40s, there is both change and continuity in how the migrant voice is incorporated. The major limitation then and now is the focus on the journey itself with little attention given to the individual’s life before it was undertaken or their prospects thereafter. Typical in this respect is the substantial investigation: Fatal Journeys: Tracking Lives Lost during Migration (2014), published by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Within it testimony is sparse and used to highlight a specific perspective. The report closes with 50 Guardian, 29 March 2016. 51 Montse Sanchez, a human rights worker, quoted in Guardian, 3 June 2014. 52 Tony Kushner, discussion with local activist, Paola Larosa, Lampedusa, 5 August 2015. Fig. 9: Inside St.Gerland’s Catholic Church, Lampedusa Town, Photo: Tony Kushner