Images and text by Jun Chen, Ian Omumbwa and Zuzanna Rosinska.

We commenced our research under the topic of the “pervasive ecology of flows” within and around the North Sea region. The ramifications (conditions) of this thematic include energy, fisheries, logistics, data and migration. Through a deep overview of these flows within the European context and in an attempt to give a clear direction to our research, we chose migration as the lens through which to assemble our collection of findings due to its principal consideration of the flow of people. As the principal cause of change in our Anthropocene era, the flow (movement, growth, shrinkage and stagnation) of individuals and groups drives and accelerates the alteration of territories. Henceforth, this flow forms the binding matter throughout the analysed conditions. It furthermore remains a consistent point of reference as the boundaries between the conditions blur due to their strong inter-relations.

Therefore, we centred our probe on how the overall conditions for logistics, energy, data and fisheries – through trends in population migration – influence, affect and change the Greater North Sea region’s territory? The entire probe was observed within a spatio-temporal framework highlighting four important socio-economic and migratory events affecting recent European history; The end of the Cold War marked by the fall of the Berlin Wall and acceleration of globalisation, the 2008 break of the Financial Crisis, the peak of the European Migrant crisis in 2015 and finally the ongoing trends in Euro-scepticism led by Great Britain’s imminent exit from the European Union (Brexit). The chosen events are historical pressure points, times at which societal shifts were felt at their most intense points. As a representative measure, five trends containing the most inter-relations were selected as instruments to navigate through our collection of findings: borders, surveillance, renewable energy, ownership and globalisation.

The fall of the Iron Curtain led to the growth of a shared EU and global economy. These open borders resulted in a reduction in time, space, information and people flow as a substantial diversification in migration flows and motives arose. The advent of globalisation, neo-liberalism and the third industrial revolution paved the way for interlinked networks and connected individuals (internet access). Although the new single market resulted in an increase in trade flow and throughput growth, environmental conditions resul-ted in unfeasible expansion of the major harbours in the south of the North Sea. However, climate change, increasing demand and economic activity and the opening of new sea routes resulted in higher demand of fishing, mineral extraction and transport which will have to be managed sustainably.

Relative to controlled migration, the EU is marked by an ease of intra-European migration countered by a difficult international migration into the continent’s states. Shifts in population shrinkage and growth along with hard borders and enclaves (refugee camps) around the periphery, particularly in countries along migra-tion routes, illustrate growing anti-immigration trends observed since the migrant crisis peak in 2015. In a further move to control and manage the territory, populations and flows and infrastructures, the collection and surveillance of produced data has been paramount.

Our research has observed that migration will remain a defining issue for the EU for the years to come, influencing politics and policy-making across the North Sea region and the European continent. Access to data, social media and in general greater connectivity to networks (ICT) is influencing migration flows and its diversification. It further highlighted an overall management and control of the European territory (North Sea included) by sovereign states, the European Commission’s bodies and private/public entities with varying interests. Based on these grounds, we herby hypothesise and predict an increase in governance, surveillance and scrutiny of the overall North Sea area and the EU’s territory. However, the historical pres-sure points and general migration trends point to a diversification of migration, leading to some populations being under more scrutiny than others. Hereby, our four scenarios will illustrate variations in migration diversification intersected by variations in surveillance intensity.

Carthography

This first chapter encapsulates the mapping of the North Sea territory and its adjoining countries. Following our principal line of enquiry entitled “A pervasive ecology of flows”, we proceeded to accumulate and position information through maps, diagrams and satellite images. The ramifications (conditions) of this thematic include energy, fisheries, logistics, data and migration. Through a deep overview of these flows within the European context and in an attempt to give a clear direction to our research, we chose migration as the lens through which to assemble our collection of findings due to its principal consideration of the flow of people.

As the principal cause of change in our Anthropocene era, the flow (movement, growth, shrinkage and stagnation) of individuals and groups drives and accelerates the alteration of territories. Henceforth, this flow forms the binding matter throughout the analysed conditions. It furthermore remains a consistent point of reference as the boundaries between the conditions blur due to their strong inter-relations. Therefore, we centred our probe on how the overall conditions for logistics, energy, data and fisheries – through trends in population migration – influence, affect and change the Greater North Sea region’s territory? The entire probe was observed within a spatio-temporal framework highlighting four important socio-economic and migratory events affecting recent European history: 1990, 2008, 2015 and 2018.

Deconstruction

In recalling our temporal framework and as a means to deconstruct the acquired information to find its intersections, the conditions were filtered through The end of the Cold War marked by the fall of the Berlin Wall and acceleration of globalisation, the 2008 break of the Financial Crisis, the peak of the European Migrant crisis in 2015 and finally the ongoing trends in Euro-scepticism led by Great Britain’s imminent exit from the European Union (Brexit). The chosen events are historical pressure points, times at which societal shifts were felt at their most intense points. As a representative measure, five trends containing the most inter-relations were selected as instruments to navigate through our collection of findings: borders, surveillance, renewable energy, ownership and globalisation.

 

Projection

Our research has observed that migration will remain a defining issue for the EU for the years to come, influencing politics and policy-making across the North Sea region and the European continent. Access to data, social media and in general greater connectivity to networks (ICT) is influencing migration flows and its diversification. Furthermore, it highlighted an overall management and control of the European territory.

Based on these grounds, we hypothesise and predict an increase in governance, surveillance and scrutiny of the overall North Sea area and the EU’s territory. However, the historical pressure points and general migration trends point to a diversification of migration, leading to some population segments being under more scrutiny than others. Hereby, our four scenarios will illustrate variations in migration diversification intersected by variations in surveillance intensity. Therefore, by intersecting the above, our cartesian plane of projections is divided into four migration scenarios.