Matryoshka Journeys

Im/mobility During Migration

Bibliographic Data

ID3948392
AuthorsNoelle K Brigden (0000-0002-2317-2935, Marquette University), Noelle Brigden, Ċetta Mainwaring (0000-0002-8264-2765, University of Waterloo, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume21
Issue2
Pages407-434
Publication date2016-04-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeopolitics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1465-0045 • E-ISSN: 1557-3028
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14650045.2015.1122592
OpenAlexW2319386292
LanguageEN
Citations received68
References cited26

Acts of mobility require corresponding acts of immobility (or suspended mobility). Migrant journeys are not only about movement. Indeed, in the present policy context, this is ever more true. Whether a migrant is contained within a hidden compartment, detained by migration authorities, waiting for remittances to continue, or marooned within a drifting boat at sea, these moments of immobility have become an inherent part of migrant journeys especially as states have increased controls at and beyond their borders. Migrants themselves view this fragmentation – the stopping, waiting and containment – as part of the journey to be endured. Drawing on the authors’ fieldwork in Central America and Southern Europe, this paper destabilises the boundary between transit and settlement, speaking to a larger policy discourse that justifies detentions and deportations from the United States and countries on the periphery of Europe. We argue that migrants’ nested experiences of these ‘matryoshka journeys’ reveal how increased migration controls encourage them not only to take greater risks during the journey, but also to forfeit their agency at opportune moments. In turn, states exploit images of such im/mobility during the journey in order to emphasise the irrational risks migrants take in order to traverse seas and deserts and to cloak their own border policies in a humanitarian discourse of rescue

Economic geography · Geography · Irregular migration · Political science · Migration, Aging, and Tourism Studies · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Regional Socio-Economic Development Trends

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