“Search and Rescue – Solidarity and Resistance” Intersectionality in the Differential Recruitment of SAR-Teams in Central Med NGOs

Since 2014 and the first civil Search and Rescue (SAR) initiatives that took place in the Mediterranean Sea, responding to what was identified as a migration crisis, the SAR social movement has gain in professionalism, leading to the practice of differential recruitment (Snow et al. 1980). In that regard, NGOs pick those allowed to join their mission at sea, through a systematic process which aims to select the “crème de la crème of humanity” (Klemp, 2022).

To some extent, SAR missions in the Central Mediterranean Sea, offer an alternative to those disappointed with the limits of the maritime labor market (misogyny, racism, classism), and is considered a way to sublimate one’s profession as a seaman – or woman. However, the overrepresentation of European, white, male crew on those missions, dealing with migrants crossing the sea to reach Europe, raises questions about the forms of domination onboard these ships. Hence a need for these organizations to manage devotions by ensuring their crews adhere to a set range of values (Collovald et al. 2002). Using the forms and job description they make available online, it is possible to measure the importance of those values and their evolution for SAR NGOs in the Central Med. Furthermore, the distinction SAR Crew and NGOs make between their activity and humanitarianism, the latter being described as a white savior practice, sheds light on the awareness and reflexivity needed to join the movement.

Intersectionality is considered here as the intersection of multiple forms of power and domination (Crenshaw, 1989), and the SAR NGOs boats a heterotopia (Foucault, 2002) which intervenes simultaneously after, during and before states of vulnerability, this communication aims to question the paradox intersectionality causes within a social movement that consists of rescuing, hosting and bringing migrants ashore in the context of south-north border crossing.