EU security enforcement in Niger: Immigration as a Trojan horse?

Following the growing academic interest for externalization processes of European migration control in third countries (Infantino 2019, El Qadim 2018, Andersson 2014, Gammeltoft-Hansen 2006), this paper proposes to study how European migration management is embedded with EU external action in the field of security in Niger. This Sahel-Saharan country is indeed qualified as a so-called migrants’country of transit along the Central Mediterranean route by “the European Union Emergency Trust fund for stability and addressing root causes of irregular migration and displaced people in Africa” (EC 2015). Focusing on this EU Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF), we question how European actors use EUTF’ opportunities to implement actions both in the fight against irregular migration and in the field of security in Niger. Once keys European security enforcers identified, we consider in which extend European practices overlap with Niger’ interests, especially in terms of fighting terrorism and State building. This paper proposes an original study of the current Europeanisation of security enforcement in Niger, with an attempt not to limit the analysis by considering EU policy’ impact on Niger, but rather in observing how the EU securitarian approach on migration tends to evolve