Contentious subjects : spatial and relational perspectives on forced migrant mobilizations in Berlin and Paris

Political mobilizations by \u2018forced migrants\u2019 for rights and recognition have proliferated worldwide in the last two decades. Yet, these contentious practices have rarely received widespread public attention. They contrast with a dominant portrayal of marginalized migrants as either passive, needy and ideally grateful objects of government or civil society humanitarianism or stigmatized outsiders and intruders in a national order. Also the academic reflection on the issue has started only relatively recently, particularly in critical migration and citizenship studies, and far less so in social movement studies. According to dominant movement theories, (forced) migrants are unlikely subjects of mobilization due to legal obstacles (including \u2018deportability\u2019), limited economic and social capital and closed political and discursive opportunities. Against this background, my thesis explores diverse processes of political mobilization by forced migrants with a view to provide theoretical refinements and empirical complements to the body of literature in social movement studies. Given the volatile and fragmented nature of forced migrant mobilizations, the research draws from recent innovations in contentious politics, highlighting \u2018micro-interactions\u2019 in specific arenas, as well the concrete spatial underpinnings of such practices. The key guiding interest evolves around the question of how protest by forced migrants emerges and unfolds through interactions among diverse players in specific arenas. I analyse the making and unmaking of social ties by forced migrants, as well as the spaces they enact and embody in processes of mobilization. With a view to integrate knowledge obtained in other disciplines, the research is furthemore informed by critical migration studies, particularly the notions of \u2018acts of citizenship\u2019 under precarious conditions in exclusive migration regimes. Designed in the tradition of \u2018political ethnography\u2019, the project both homes in on specific interactions in deleneated arenas and adds a comparative element by contrasting various arenas. The project investigates four protest arenas in two European capitals, Berlin and Paris. It therefore scrutinizes and contrasts processes of mobilization in two distinct legal, relational and spatial contexts. In adding a diachronic comparison in each location, the research aims at the tentative identification of relational and spatial patterns in forced migrant mobilizations. The research shows how marginalized actors temporarily overcome structural obstacles through interactions with more powerful actors and by appropriating spaces with avantageous relational qualities. Moreover, the research documents the fragility of ties that are made and unmade both among forced migrants and with pro-beneficiaries in concrete contentious interactions

Migrant Protest

Migrant protest has proliferated worldwide in the last two decades, explicitly posing questions of identity, rights, and equality in a globalized world. Nonetheless, such mobilizations are considered anomalies in social movement studies, and political sociology more broadly, due to 'weak interests' and a particularly disadvantageous position of 'outsiders' to claim rights connected to citizenship. In an attempt to address this seeming paradox, this book explores the interactions and spaces shaping the emergence, trajectory, and fragmentation of migrant protest in unfavourable contexts of marginalization. Such a perspective unveils both the odds of precarious mobilizations, and the ways they can be temporarily overcome. While adopting the encompassing terminology of 'migrant', the book focusses on precarious migrants, including both asylum seekers and 'illegalized' migrants

The Myth of Apolitical Volunteering for Refugees: German Welcome Culture and a New Dispositif of Helping

During the so-called “refugee crisis”, the notion of an unparalleled German hospitality toward asylum seekers circulated within the (inter)national public sphere, often encapsulated by the blurry buzzword “Welcome Culture”. In this article, we scrutinize these developments and suggest that the image of the so-called “crisis” has activated an unprecedented number of German citizens to engage in practices of “apolitical” helping. We argue that this trend has contributed to the emergence of what we term a new dispositif of helping, which embeds refugee solidarity in humanitarian parameters and often avoids an explicit political, spatial, and historical contextualization. This shift has activated individuals from the socio-political centre of society, well beyond the previously committed radical-left, antiracist, and faith-based groups. However, we aim to unmask forms of “apolitical” volunteering for refugees as a powerful myth: the new dispositif of helping comes with ambivalent and contradictory effects that range from forms of antipolitics to transformative political possibilities within the European border regime

L'accueil allemand, un modèle pour la France ?

Le système d'asile allemand, réputé plus efficace pour expulser les demandeurs d'asile déboutés, mais aussi pour accueillir, héberger et intégrer les nouveaux venus sur le marché du travail, serait-il un modèle ? La réponse ne va pas de soi. Basé sur une approche sélective et répressive qui vise à dissuader par l'inconfort, ce système ne manque pas de susciter de vives critiques en Allemagne. Impulsées par divers acteurs locaux, des modalités alternatives d'accueil et d'hébergement se développent montrant que d'autres voies sont possibles

eine Befragung von Vereinen und Initiativen

Das Working Paper präsentiert Ergebnisse einer Organisationsbefragung zur Auswirkung der COVID-19 Pandemie auf Vereine und Initiativen in Deutschland. Die Studie zeigt, dass die Zivilgesellschaft mit großer Wucht getroffen wurde. Viele Organisationen mussten ihre Aktivitäten einschränken oder ganz einstellen. Dennoch zeigen die Ergebnisse ebenfalls, dass sich bestimmte Organisationsformen besser anpassen und ihre Handlungsfähigkeit aufrechterhalten konnten. Dies könnte nachhaltige Auswirkungen auf die Struktur der post-pandemischen Zivilgesellschaft in Deutschland haben

Migrant Protest

Migrant protest has proliferated worldwide in the last two decades, explicitly posing questions of identity, rights, and equality in a globalized world. Nonetheless, such mobilizations are considered anomalies in social movement studies, and political sociology more broadly, due to 'weak interests' and a particularly disadvantageous position of 'outsiders' to claim rights connected to citizenship. In an attempt to address this seeming paradox, this book explores the interactions and spaces shaping the emergence, trajectory, and fragmentation of migrant protest in unfavourable contexts of marginalization. Such a perspective unveils both the odds of precarious mobilizations, and the ways they can be temporarily overcome. While adopting the encompassing terminology of 'migrant', the book focusses on precarious migrants, including both asylum seekers and 'illegalized' migrants

Fragile Solidarities: Contestation and Ambiguity at European Borderzones

Borders as legal, social, and material aspaces of inclusion/exclusion constantly spark resistance, by both migrants and solidarity actors. In this article, we combine the dual observation of a proliferation of border control policies and of migrant and solidarity activism to analyse how different types of border control policies affect the forms of resistance that emerge in them. We inquire on three different cases: first the Calais region at the territorial border between France and the UK; second the camps and detention centres for refugees and migrants marking borders within Europe; and third the intimate space of encounters between citizens and migrants during practices of migrant support. In our theory oriented qualitative analysis, we carve out how power relations, and thereby notions of inclusion/exclusion, deservingness and (il)legality play out differently on the ambivalent solidarities unfolding in these settings.</p

Shrinking Spaces and Civil Society Contestation : An Introduction

In the context of both the financial crisis and the crisis of European migration politics, the notion of solidarity has gained renewed prominence and – as we argue in this book – its practice has become increasingly contentious. A series of intersecting crises have sharpened social and political polarization and have contracted simultaneously the space for migrant and minority rights as well as the rights around political dissent. This introduction builds upon social movement and migration studies to develop a theoretical framework on the two sides of “contentious solidarity”: a shrinking civic space and its contestation. It thereby maps the variety of repressive means (physical, legal, administrative, and discursive) employed by governmental and non-governmental against migrant solidarity, but also on how civil society organizations react to it through both moderation and increasing contention