Introduction: Borders and the Politics of Mourning

The rise in the number of migrants and refugees arriving in Europe is the latest in a series of “crises” related to the movement of people that have captured the world’s attention. In the past two decades, hundreds of people have died every year in their attempts to cross borders, from the US-Mexico border, to the Mediterranean and beyond. This introduction proposes to look at the political force of public grief in the context of these border deaths and raises questions about the potential impact and limitations of a ‘politics of mourning’.