European states employ migration information campaigns (MICs) to discourage irregular migration to Europe by people from the Global South. Campaigns are justified by their initiators in various ways. On the one hand, campaigns are said to protect ‘potential migrants’ by helping them to make informed decisions (‘care’). On the other hand, campaigns respond to Europe's security objective of restricting migration flows (‘control’). Researchers have looked at various intermediaries involved in these campaigns. Yet, little attention has been given to individual European policy actors who decide on the funding and design of campaigns and how they navigate between campaigns' contradictory intentions to care for ‘potential migrants’ and to control borders. How do European campaign initiators justify the need for MICs? And what does this tell us about the migration imaginaries of those who develop migration governance measures? Based on interviews with European policymakers and campaign designers in the Netherlands and Senegal, this article examines their discursive acts of legitimation. It shows that in justifying their everyday work, they imagine themselves as humanitarian actors, and ‘potential migrants’ as depoliticized subjects in need of care. While initiators do sometimes examine campaigns critically, they build a worldview in which care is instrumental to border enforcement and in which compassion becomes a form of repressive ‘soft’ bordering.

中文翻译：

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驾驭矛盾：欧洲移民信息运动发起者的辩解和想象


欧洲国家通过移民信息宣传活动 （MIC） 来阻止来自全球南方的人非正规移民到欧洲。活动发起者以各种方式证明其合理性。一方面，据说这些活动通过帮助“潜在移民”做出明智的决定（“关怀”）来保护他们。另一方面，活动响应了欧洲限制移民流动（“控制”）的安全目标。研究人员研究了参与这些活动的各种中介机构。然而，很少有人关注欧洲政策行为者，他们决定运动的资金和设计，以及他们如何在运动的矛盾意图之间游刃有余，以照顾“潜在移民”和控制边界。欧洲活动发起者如何证明对 MIC 的需求？这告诉我们关于那些制定移民治理措施的人的移民想象是什么？基于对荷兰和塞内加尔的欧洲政策制定者和竞选活动设计师的采访，本文研究了他们的合法化话语行为。它表明，在为他们的日常工作辩护时，他们将自己想象成人道主义行为者，而将“潜在移民”想象成需要照顾的非政治化主体。虽然发起者有时确实会批判性地审视活动，但他们建立了一种世界观，在这种世界观中，关怀有助于边境执法，而同情心成为一种压迫性的“软”边界形式。