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Uncertain Belongings: Absent Mourning, Burial, and Post-mortem Repatriations at the External Border of the EU in Spain

ABSTRACT Since the mid-1980s, migrants from North African and sub-Saharan countries have irregularly crossed the Strait of Gibraltar in the hope of a better future for themselves and their families. Travelling in small, poorly equipped boats without experienced captains has cost the lives of myriad border-crossers. Exploring the junction of death and belonging, I first open a discussion about the enigmatic relation between a dead body and a dead person and argue for the importance of the physical presence of the body for mourning. Second, I show how the anonymity of dead border-crossers and their uncertain belongings are generated, concealed, or rewritten. Following the story of an undertaker, I third examine post-mortem border crossings. Depicting the power relations within identification processes, I outline the ambiguity of the term belonging by emphasising the constitutive significance of personal belongings such as clothes to restore a person's identity. Reflecting on the ethical relationships which different actors (including the researcher) undertake with the deceased, I aim at gaining a better understanding of the multiple belongings of dead border-crossers found on Spanish shores.