Lives in Transit

An Ethnographic Study of Refugees’ Subjectivity across European Borders

Bibliographic Data

ID19904845
AuthorsElena Fontanari (0000-0003-3045-4110, University of Milan, corresponding author)
Year2018
Publication date2018-10-30
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueLives in Transit (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4324/9781351234061
OpenAlexW4230940652
Open LibraryOL40055146M
ISBN9781351234061
LanguageEN
Citations received45

This book explores the border-crossing mobilities of refugees within Europe. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Germany and Italy, it examines the precarious everyday lives of non-citizens living between and beyond EU internal borders. With attention to the constant re-construction of borders within Europe through negotiation practices, the author shows how the tensions that exist between refugees on the move and the structural constraints that limit their movement produce 'interstices' – small spaces of possibility that open up as a result of refugees' struggling within structural constraints. A comprehensive understanding of the long-term effects of EU borders upon refugees' lives is then afforded through a particular focus on the post-arrival period. Examining the protracted precariousness and multi-directional hyper-mobility in Europe that emerges from the dynamics of the relation between structural mechanisms and the agency of individuals, Lives in Transit reveals how the border regime in Europe impacts mostly upon the temporal rather than the spatial dimensions of refugees' lives, affecting their subjectivities and sense of self. This 'dispossession' of time is advocated as the main problem with the experience of refugees in Europe, causing them to claim a temporal justice, which seeks to gain back control of their own lives and personhood. Calling for migration to be understood as a process of 'becoming subjects', this volume will appeal to scholars of sociology, anthropology, and politics with interests in migration and diaspora studies

Epistemology · Ethnography · Geography · Political science · Public transport · Refugee · Sociology · Subjectivity · Transit (satellite) · Transport engineering · Anthropology · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Engineering · Gender Studies · Law · Migration and Exile Studies · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Philosophy · Border crossing · Discrimination & Race Relations · emigration and immigration · Émigration et immigration · Europe · Minority Studies · Passage de frontière · Refugees · Réfugiés · Social aspects · Social conditions · Social Science