The inter-linkage between migration policies and irregular migration in the Global South: Evidence from Ethiopia

International migration is a controversial political and policy agenda, leading to the adoption of different policy measures in both sending and receiving countries. This blog takes the case of Ethiopia and examines the contexts and interplay between migration policy measures and international migration phenomena in sending countries.

The Unseen Workforce: Formalizing Ethiopian Seasonal Labor Migration in Sudan

El-Gedaref: A Vital Agricultural Hub Shaped by Migration
Located in eastern Sudan, El-Gedaref State is an agricultural powerhouse serves as a critical crossroads for migration, particularly during regional conflict. Known for its fertile land and diverse range of crops, El-Gedaref faces unique challenges and opportunities that intertwine agriculture with human migration, both internal and cross-border, in ways that are central to understanding the dynamics of this part of the world.

The construction of an internal humanitarian border: the case of Puebla, Mexico

Introduction The October 2018 migrant caravans prompted migration to be reconfigured as a political issue in the Central America–Mexico–United States region. Described as a forgotten crisis by the European Commission (European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, 2021), transit and settlement migration from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador to Mexico had until then been invisible …

Neoliberal and Neocolonial Entanglements: Women Seeking Asylum in the US

Paloma had been in the immigration detention center for four days when I met her. While in confinement, she and her children had been given clothes and a room to share with other families. While discussing her asylum interview, I asked about her job in her native country. Taking her hand to the back of …

The Poland-Belarus Border: A Conversation with Marta Bivand Erdal

Saumya: Could you share a little about your research on migration? Marta: I am a human geographer, and I am interested in emigration as well as immigration and transnational ties that result from people moving from one place to another, but who have family members and close people in other places around the world. An …

Writing a history of the “long summer of migration”: Reflections on activist-academic practices

Abstract: In this paper we reflect upon our work in camps along the so-called Balkan route in 2016, from a perspective that merges activism, academic insights, and political orientations. Our experiences, the materials we collected, and subsequent reflections led to the creation of the exhibition “Yallah!? Along the Balkan route,” which is located at the …

The Black Holes of Lesbos: Border Violence, Asylum and Racism at Moria Camp

Introduction   Following the historic summer of 2015, when nearly 1 million people transited through Greece and overcame multiple border barriers within Europe, Lesbos was rapidly reconfigured as one of the main epicenters of a renewed violent phase of mobility control and militarization through the implementation of the “hotspot approach”. Introduced by the European Agenda on …

Waiting for the Smuggler: Tales Across the Border

In September 2015, the image of three-year-old Alan Kurdi lying on a beach after drowning while trying to reach Greece from Turkey sent waves of  indignation around the world. A few weeks later, equal moral outrage was generated by the suspicions that Abdullah Kurdi, Alan’s father, could have been one of the smugglers who that …

The political potential of responsibility in domestic humanitarianism

This post is part of a series linked to the workshop “Assessing the Anthropology of Humanitarianism: Ethnography, Impact, Critique”. ———————————————– Operation Sovereign Borders Even on a frozen winter’s night, the queue snaked around the corner. Taking seats in the Melbourne warehouse for the prospective volunteer information evening, the chatter died down as the charismatic CEO …

Border walls and fences: an interview with Antonio De Lauri

There seems to be a current international preoccupation with border walls as a form of security and protection – with people both advocating and protesting their construction. However, walls and barriers are not a new phenomenon. What is the continuing historical factor motivating the construction of border barriers? Throughout global history border barriers have had …