Solidarity Framings and EU Legal Mobilization in the Context of Migration and Asylum

Collective actions that mobilize EU law in the context of migration and asylum oftentimes simultaneously challenge EU law and its effects of border violence. In other words, they mobilize the promises made by EU law against the operation of EU law itself. This paper explores this tension from the perspective of ‘solidarity framings’, mainly informed by political sociology and social movement studies. It shows that such tension is made possible not merely by the violation of part of EU law mobilized in collective actions, but also by the coexistence of several conceptions of solidarity in EU law that operate in unequal and racialized ways. Two, sometimes intersecting, framings of solidarity are discussed: individual-centred solidarity and state-centred solidarity. Both shape EU citizenship law and EU migration and asylum law, but in very different ways. While for EU citizens they work in the direction of a social solidarity to consolidate social bonds among EU citizens, for ‘third country nationals’ they are at best limited to a solidarity in the name of humanity. Human solidarity, while claiming to be universal, is however limited by at least three controversial dynamics when it comes to migrants: (1) an inter-state solidarity that conflicts – instead of converging – with human solidarity; (2) a racialized EU visa policy; and (3) a limited conception of racial discrimination in EU law. Considering these critical insights, the paper then turns to examine their implications for civil society actions that mobilize EU law’s promises in the context of migration and asylum. Looking more specifically at the ‘Stop Border Violence’ European citizens’ initiative and the actions of the NGO Front-Lex, it provides some tentative thoughts on their possibilities and limits.