Conclusion

The conclusion summarizes, synthesizes, and discusses the results of the book. It first reflects on the relation between iconicity and the potential of mobilization of images in political contexts. Second, it argues for the importance of also focusing on invisibilities and absences when analyzing visual border politics. Applying this to the three cases of visual border politics analyzed, it highlights that political actors in both, Germany and the UK, evoked collective (visual) memories of the Holocaust when mobilizing images to legitimate appropriate policy responses. Whereas the Holocaust and the respective country’s role in it were very present in both policy discourses analyzed, both countries’ colonial histories and their relation to the ongoing flight-migrations were strikingly absent. This absence matters because it allows disconnecting the flight-migrations from the countries’ responsibility and sets conditions of possibilities for humanitarian-securitarian policies such as the EU Turkey Deal and other restrictive policy reactions that followed in Germany and the UK. The book concludes by relating the visual border politics of 2015/2016 to recent developments and by outlining further avenues for research.