The Threshold and the Line: Bodies, Migration, and a Pier in Lampedusa

Contemporary borders are constituted by various forms of knowledge, including legal, technological, geographical, and military, among others. This contribution is based on the exploration of one of those specific sets of knowledge: the medical and clinical one. Through extensive ethnographic fieldwork on the island of Lampedusa, in the middle of the deadly Central Mediterranean route, this analysis examines its medical apparatus and its ambiguous role as a political and legal tool in border management. In particular, the article focuses on a limited yet crucial space: the military pier of Lampedusa reserved for the disembarkation of arriving migrants and their medical inspection.