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(English) The Border Crossing Observatory

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A research study of Afghan deportees from Iran

The situation of Afghans in neighboring countries remains one of the world’s largest and most longstanding refugee and displacement problems. Despite the significant returns of Afghans to their homeland since 2002 an estimated 920,000 documented Afghans 2 and one million undocumented Afghans remain in Iran today. This population is composed of registered and undocumented refugees, … Continue reading A research study of Afghan deportees from Iran →

Research study on cross border population movements between Afghanistan and Pakistan

Today, the majority of Afghans travelling to and from Pakistan are temporary migrants. A 2005 IOM study found that cross border movements for social and economic purposes far exceeded refugee movements. Regular border monitoring reports and enumeration exercises carried out by the UNHCR also point to the informal nature of the cross border migration. The … Continue reading Research study on cross border population movements between Afghanistan and Pakistan →

Reflections on EU territoriality and the ‘bordering’ of Europe

This journal, Political Geography, has been a major platform for the critical discussion of the European Union and its socio-spatial significance. In recent years, its readers have been able to appreciate shifting conceptualizations of the European Union, both as a political space and as an actor in the world system     .    

Human blacklisting: the global apartheid of the EU’s external border regime.

Over the last few years, the global face of the EU has been changing. The EU is spinning a global border web with regard to the battle against irregular migration. At the borders of the EU, a powerful and security-obsessed distinction between travellers is increasingly being constructed between the travellers who `belong to’ the EU … Continue reading Human blacklisting: the global apartheid of the EU’s external border regime. →

The Myth of Invasion: the inconvenient realities of African migration to Europe

African migration to Europe is commonly seen as a tidal wave of desperate people fleeing poverty and warfare at home trying to enter the elusive European el Dorado. Typical ‘solutions’ proposed by politicians include increasing border controls or boosting African ‘stay-at-home’ development. However, such apocalyptic views are based on fundamentally flawed assumptions about the (limited) … Continue reading The Myth of Invasion: the inconvenient realities of African migration to Europe →

At the exteremes of exclusion: Deportation , detention and dispersal.

Deportation, detention and dispersal have formed an occasional part of Britain’s migration regime throughout the twentieth century, though they tended to be used in response to particular events or “crises”. By the end of the twentieth century, however, deportation, detention and, most recently, dispersal have become “normalized”, “essential” instruments in the ongoing attempt to control … Continue reading At the exteremes of exclusion: Deportation , detention and dispersal. →

Survival migration: A new protection framework

The modern refugee regime, created in the aftermath of World War II, provides protection mainly to people who flee individualized persecution or generalized violence. Subsequent to its creation, a range of new drivers of external displacement—particularly related to the interaction of environmental change, livelihood collapse, and state fragility—have emerged that fall outside the framework of … Continue reading Survival migration: A new protection framework →