Friday, July 14, 2017
WMB - Hugh Fraser Seminar Room 2 (University of Glasgow)
One significant, and mostly overlooked, aspect of the current migration crisis in Europe, as well as the rest of the world, is what is commonly known as the refugee camps. Six new reception and detention centers had already been under construction in Turkey, when the revolution took place in Syria. More of these facilities, as well as formal or informal refugee camps have been opened elsewhere in Europe during the last two years. More recently, the spaces for illegalized migrants have been transforming into carceral environments. This paper first makes a spatial analysis of these places in Turkey and Europe, and then discusses the notions of “wasteland” and “extraterritorial black holes” in the context of the migration politics and policies around them. If looked beyond the spatial characteristics of these environments, the camp managers, the illegalized and disposable migrants, and the volunteers create a gathering of new identities and solidarity in the context of (no)belonging in the camp. Therefore, and secondly, this paper aims to read the (sustainability) of the notions of disposability and transnational citizenship in the context of migration by focusing on these same spaces in Gaziantep, Turkey, Lesvos and Idomeni, Greece, and Grande Synthe and Calais, France. The paper borrows methods from the disciplines of investigative journalism, architecture, and sociology to demonstrate and discuss its arguments.
