A migrant “hot potato” system: The transit camp and urban integration in a bridge society

Mandić, Danilo

doi:10.1080/07352166.2018.1490153

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Refugee camps may play a key geopolitical role related to specific border functions, as has clearly been highlighted in recent work on the camps in northern France and along the Balkan route (Katz, 2017a;Mandić, 2018;Umek et al, 2018). Camps have in fact long been part of the 'border spectacle' (De Genova, 2013), created as temporary waiting areas within the intensifying practices of border and immigration policing and control (see Mountz et al, 2013).…”

Section: Rethinking the Geographies Of The Refugee Campmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking the camp: On spatial technologies of power and resistance

Martin

Minca

Katz

2019

Progress in Human Geography

100

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In light of the recent proliferation and co-presence of institutional and makeshift camps and encampments in Europe, this article explores the current multifaceted geographies of the camp and their formal and informal spatialities. By engaging with key work in ‘camp studies’ we analyse contemporary institutional and makeshift refugee camps in their complex relationship. While the review of the existing literature is a fundamental starting point for our analysis, in this article we propose to depart from a perspective exclusively focussed on institutional camps to incorporate a reflection on the informal encampments that have recently proliferated in Europe. In particular, we reflect on how these makeshift spatial formations are associated with the presence and workings of institutional camps, at times in a complementary, almost symbiotic relationship. We conclude by suggesting that camps should not be studied in isolation and that both institutional and informal camps should be examined as dynamic spaces that may be transformed and appropriated by their residents, becoming part of the current fragmented mobilities of irregular migrations across Europe and of the related political geographies of bordering, smuggling, and humanitarian care.

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Section: Rethinking the Geographies Of The Refugee Campmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking the camp: On spatial technologies of power and resistance

Martin

Minca

Katz

2019

Progress in Human Geography

100

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“…The resentment towards non‐working, non‐participating visitors is apparent when journalists “parachute” in for a few hours or days. In his work in Preševo, an official camp in Serbia, Mandić notes the “near unanimous contempt expressed for journalists who visit [the camps] fleetingly (like a zoo), ask a few questions, and abscond forever” (, p. 4; for more on “zoopolitics,” see Vaughan‐Williams, ). This sentiment is echoed across informal transit camps, where graffiti states: “No Photos” and “No Journalists” in response to the influx of non‐participating visitors, who are generally viewed as exploitative, invasive, and voyeuristic, rather than welcome or helpful.…”

Section: Volunteering To Gain Legitimacy and Rapportmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… Smuggling has been “widely misperceived as unequivocally sinister, exploitative and abusive” and the migrant‐smuggler relationship has, in fact, become more nuanced and indispensable in contemporary irregular migration (Mandić, , p. 10). See Tinti and Reitano (). …”

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confidence: 99%

Researching migrants in informal transit camps along the Balkan Route: Reflections on volunteer activism, access, and reciprocity

Jordan

Moser

2020

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The changing geographies of irregular migration require new methodological approaches and modes of researcher engagement. In and around Europe, migrants are increasingly residing in unconventional, dynamic, and diverse spaces such as informal transit camps. Along the Balkan Route, these temporary, makeshift encampments are emerging as a result of the EU's crackdown on border controls, tightening restrictions on asylum legislation and aid provision, and increasingly long, difficult, and fragmented migratory journeys. Across cities, border-zones, and at strategic transit hubs, immobilised migrants have established informal transit camps where they may temporarily reside and access services, information, and smugglers before their next clandestine attempt to cross into the EU. Due to transit state policies that effectively ignore these transit camps and ban larger NGOs from operating there, the majority of services and humanitarian aid is provided by small, grassroots organisations and unpaid volunteers. The proliferation of informal transit camps, and the particular social constellations of actors who reside and operate in these spaces, call for further scholarly attention. In this paper, we reflect on the challenges and opportunities of taking on a role as a volunteer while conducting research among migrants in informal transit camps. By considering the acute conditions of informality, vulnerability, and precariousness, this paper illustrates how volunteering in this context is a way of gaining access to the site, establishing rapport and legitimacy, and fostering reciprocity among migrant subjects. Drawing from fieldwork along the Balkan Route as a volunteerresearcher, this paper examines methodology, best practices, positionality, and the ethical benefits and limitations of highly participatory, engagement-driven research in informal transit camps at Europe's periphery.

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“…Rumours about closure and the uncertain intervention of the authorities thus shape life in both formal and informal camps in a decisive way, where closure is always just a matter of time (Mandic ´, 2018;Mavrommatis, 2018;Mould, 2017aMould, , 2017b. While the deliberate non-intervention of authorities in makeshift camps normally allows for a significant degree of self-organization in these informal dwellings, that is however always strictly linked to the imminent possibility of intervention and eviction (Agier et al, 2018;Martin et al, 2020).…”

Section: Conceptualizing Camp Closure 1 Closure As Sovereign Exceptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Closing camps

Weima

Minca

2021

Progress in Human Geography

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Refugee camp geographies vary greatly; however, the most fleeting informal camps and decades-old institutional settlements have in common that they are meant to be temporary. While research on camps has been attentive to their spatialities, relatively little work has focused on closures. However, we consider the permanent possibility of closure as a constitutive element of life-in-the-camp. Closures, then, must be situated within the exclusionary landscapes in which states manage migrants custody, protection and displacement. We accordingly present camp closures as manifestations of sovereign power and the study of camp afterlives as key to critical understandings of camp geographies.

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A migrant “hot potato” system: The transit camp and urban integration in a bridge society

Cited by 13 publications

References 32 publications

Rethinking the camp: On spatial technologies of power and resistance

Rethinking the camp: On spatial technologies of power and resistance

Researching migrants in informal transit camps along the Balkan Route: Reflections on volunteer activism, access, and reciprocity

Closing camps

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