Abstract
Situated at the interplay between ethnic politics, migration, border, and security studies, this contribution analyzes processes of securitization of borders in South Tyrol, an Italian province bordering Austria and
Switzerland with a German- and Ladin-speaking population and a past of ethnic tensions. South Tyrol is
considered a model for fostering peaceful interethnic relations thanks to a complex power-sharing system.
However, the arrival of migrants from foreign countries and the more recent influx of asylum seekers have
revitalized debates around the borders between South Tyrol/Italy and Austria and among South Tyrolean
linguistic groups. The current COVID-19 pandemic has brought further complexity to the issue. I use the
concept of securitization—the process through which an issue is considered as an existential threat requiring
exceptional measures—in order to understand why and how borders become exclusionary and restrictive,
shaping dynamics of othering. With this framework, the article explores how South Tyrolean borders have
been subjected to (de)securitizing and resecuritizing moves in discourses and practices. In this way, I shed
new light on debates on the articulation of borders and interethnic relations that are occurring due to recent
international migration, consolidation of nationalist agendas, and the current pandemic.