Informal refugee spatialities and urban interstices along the Balkan Route (1): the Belgrade refugee hub

This paper is the result of fieldwork that has been conducted over eight years (2015- 2023) along the so-called refugee 'Balkan Route' and it aims to discuss the development, the commonalities and the differences that have characterized two cities (Belgrade and Trieste) faced with the implications of the refugee related humanitarian crisis that, since the summer of 2015, has challenged all European immigration policies and put a strain on many local reception systems. For editorial reasons, our research will be presented in two distinct articles which are conceptually and analytically part of the same, broader, essay: therefore, in the present article we discuss the positioning of the project compared to the existing literature, the methodology and the case of Belgrade; in an article that will follow (entitled: Spazi informali e interstizi urbani lungo la Rotta Balcanica (2): Trieste Endgame, published in the next issue of this journal) we will discuss the case of Trieste, while in the conclusion we will present the general findings of the overall project. More specifically, here we examine the ways in which refugees and asylum seekers have used, re-signified and appropriated some key urban areas in Belgrade, contributing to the emergence of a refugee hub that is the result, at the same time, of the interventions of the authorities and of the humanitarian organizations, of ever-changing border policies as well as of the spatial tactics of the people on the move along this informal migration corridor.