| Sumario: | The Italian island of Lampedusa has become synonymous with irregular migration and border enforcement in the Mediterranean, not least since thousands of Tunisians stranded on the island during the so-called Arab Spring in 2011. This article investigates how local interpretations of the situation were centred on 'abandonment by the state', and it suggests that 2011 thus represented both a moment of rupture and historical reproduction: while everyday regularities were dislodged and the local tourist industry suffered a hard blow, the interpretative frame of 'abandonment by the state' is a political relation as old as Italy itself. Inspired by Reinhardt Koselleck's thinking on multilayered and multidirectional history, the article describes 2011 as a 'layered event' that engaged both a troubled past and an uncertain future.
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