This article is concerned with the role and function of Black African fugitive sites in the context of a rapidly changing European border regime since the outbreak of the Libyan war in 2011. A new form of settlement has been on the rise in the Mediterranean, which serves both as a transit place and precarious shelter for migrants on the move. Such ‘ghettos’ acquire different forms, from concrete buildings to plastic shelters to entire migrant villages. They have been spotted on major migrant travel routes in Africa—in Niger, Mauritania, Libya, Tunisia—as well as in Europe, in urban peripheries as well as rural environments. While not a lot of literature exists on these places, they are said to be used as stopover places for the destitute and the weak: those migrants driven by expulsion, violence and loss (Lecadet 2013, Agier and Lecadet 2014, Lucht 2017). At the same time, though, they also serve to forge social networks for supporting onward journeys, to look for jobs, to find financial assistance, and in general to reconstitute a sense of community in a context of high risk and unpredictability.

Impermanent Territories: The Mediterranean Crisis and the (Re-)production of the Black Subject

Timothy Raeymaekers
2021

Abstract

This article is concerned with the role and function of Black African fugitive sites in the context of a rapidly changing European border regime since the outbreak of the Libyan war in 2011. A new form of settlement has been on the rise in the Mediterranean, which serves both as a transit place and precarious shelter for migrants on the move. Such ‘ghettos’ acquire different forms, from concrete buildings to plastic shelters to entire migrant villages. They have been spotted on major migrant travel routes in Africa—in Niger, Mauritania, Libya, Tunisia—as well as in Europe, in urban peripheries as well as rural environments. While not a lot of literature exists on these places, they are said to be used as stopover places for the destitute and the weak: those migrants driven by expulsion, violence and loss (Lecadet 2013, Agier and Lecadet 2014, Lucht 2017). At the same time, though, they also serve to forge social networks for supporting onward journeys, to look for jobs, to find financial assistance, and in general to reconstitute a sense of community in a context of high risk and unpredictability.
2021
The Black Mediterranean: : Bodies, Borders and Citizenship
117
144
Timothy Raeymaekers
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11585/885942
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