Details

North Africa and the Mediterranean have long been major thoroughfares of irregular migrants on the move from south to north. In our upcoming workshop, we wish to follow the main migration routes taken by various migrants, with a focus on the African side: The “western route” from Morocco to Spain (including Melilla and Ceuta), the “central route” from Libya to Italy, and the "eastern route" — from the Horn of Africa to Israel and other Middle Eastern countries.

We wish to foster a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective and explore the ways these three interconnected trajectories are impacting North Africa, Southern Europe, and the Mediterranean basin generally. Further afield we are interested in the broader context of this migration movement in both space and time: How it is affecting demographic, social, political and cultural balances in its African origins and in its European destinations in the immediate, intermediate, and the long-term.

While the social, economic, political, and cultural dimensions are of obvious importance to a discussion of irregular migration, we also focus on life stories, exploring choices and experiences from the migrants' point of view. As we look into peoples' narratives, we hope to problematize terms such as “forced migration,” “refugees” and “refugee camps.” Their meanings are certainly not self-evident. We will also try to understand the political settings which the migrants traverse, their impact and their changing nature.