Everyday Resistance to the European Governance of Migration

5:00-6:30pm, Wednesdays, Seminar Room 1, Queen Elizabeth House

Series convenor: Dr Cory Rodgers

As national immigration and asylum regimes become increasingly restrictive in countries around the world, “Fortress Europe” stands out for its efforts to regulate human movement both within and beyond its borders. Following the 2015 “crisis”, spikes in detention and deportation have been common features of European migration management. But there are also examples of resistance by migrants and citizens, who defy, endure, and creatively navigate these systems and practices of exclusion, often in ways that are overlooked in legal and institutional accounts of migration governance. This term, four Oxford-based speakers will describe situations in which such efforts become visible (and audible), through diverse case studies from sites on both sides of the Mediterranean. While focused on dramatically different situations and activities, they share an interest in alternative understandings of migration governance, as well as the practices by which people contend with state strategies, xenophobic narratives, and exclusionary practices.

8 May: Civil solidarity and the hunt for undocumented migrants. Two Belgian case studies

Dr Robin Vandevoordt, Refugee Studies Centre

15 May: Mobility economies: immobility, accumulation and migration in Libya

Dr Marthe Achtnich, Magdalen College, Oxford

22 May: Endurance and involuntary return to Senegal

Dr Anne-Line Rodriguez, Queen Mary University of London

29 May: Sonopolis: sound, citizenship, and migrant activisms in Athens

Dr Tom Western, Refugee Studies Centre

5 June: Annual Elizabeth Colson Lecture 2019

Professor Peter Redfield, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Registration is required for this lecture. Details will be announced shortly.

Refreshments will be provided after each seminar.