Policing Borders, Boundaries & Bodies

NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2016

Design and editing by Carrie Benjamin

Special thanks to Rana Baker for additional content and to Siri Schwabe & Matt Fish for their photo contributions

Cover photograph by Carrie Benjamin

Table of Contents

A Letter from the Chair ...... 1 Border Crossings ...... 3 SOAS Goes To Calais ...... 7

Everywhere Borders—Resistance Everywhere ...... 9 Policing themselves: Undocumented migrants‘ sense of belonging in Brussels ...... 13 The other side of the Greek refugee crisis: the transit port of Patras ...... 17 The ―Laissez-passer‖: A show of force, resistance, and a new beginning ...... 21 An Interview with Danny Dorling ...... 25 Spotlight on 2015 CMDS Events ...... 29 Partnership with External Organisations ...... 34 Kayd Somali Arts and Culture ...... 35 PAN Arts & Fortune Theatre: Londinium ...... 37 Spotlight on our Members ...... 38 CMDS Member Updates ...... 39 PhD Student Research ...... 43 SOAS CMDS Member list ...... 44

The true ‗migration crisis‘ continues to be A Letter from pushed to the edges of Europe, with the Middle East bearing the heaviest burden of ‗managing‘ migration flows. Turkey is currently being paid the Chair vast amounts by the EU to house more migrants, and is instructed when to open and close its borders. Greece too is under pressure, a di- rect result of closing off ‗legal‘ routes, and re- The 21st century has been dubbed ‗the century stricting ever further the category of ‗refugee‘. of the migrant‘. Ongoing wars, ecological disas- Europe, meanwhile, continues to discuss how ters, and worldwide economic instability has many migrants it can ‗afford‘, and assess who is precipitated the movement of peoples seeking worthy of ‗saving‘ under an increasingly restric- better, and safer lives. These mass population tive immigration policy. movements are perceived as a ‗crisis‘, and the What we are seeing unfolding is not a ‗migration ‗crisis‘ seems to continue unabated. It now crisis‘ that has to be managed; it is a political forms an ongoing backdrop to our daily lives, crisis about who has the right to move. A global almost like stalled time, as the death and suffer- elite continues to enjoy a mobility largely unim- ing of migrants is routinely normalised. After the peded by border controls. But this is done at the outpouring of emotion that greeted the picture of price of growing inequality, and increasing re- Aylan Kurdi drowned on a beach last summer, strictions on the movements of the world‘s images of drowning migrants have returned to ‗others‘, most often its racialised ‗others‘. As cur- being just another news item. Meanwhile, in rently exercised, border controls for the world‘s Europe, the debate on the ‗crisis‘ continues to ‗others‘ simply do not work. Our present increas- be shaped as a question of management; polic- ingly militarised global ‗migration regime‘ serves ing bodies, controlling flows, and managing risk. to make the world a more dangerous place, and This notion of managing the ‗crisis‘ is being the belief that those in the west have the right to heightened by an increasing production of decide who has the right to move, and to where, ‗illegality‘, with a proliferation of immigration leg- continues to endanger thousands of lives, mak- islation making it ever harder and more danger- ing some lives more worthy of saving than oth- ous for some people to move, or enter Europe ers. legally. Last month, rescues workers were initially unable to intervene as a boat filled with mi- Open borders are already a reality, not some grants that was crossing the Aegean got into future utopian dream; but at the moment only trouble. 31 people drowned. Under maritime some are afforded the luxury of being able to law, they had to wait until the boat crossed an move safely. Everyone should have the right to international border, or risk being charged with safe mobility. That requires rethinking a highly people smuggling. discriminatory approach to international migration, and seeking political solutions to the crisis, If there is a crisis in Europe, it is one of Europe‘s not managerial ones. own making; closing borders, and producing more categories of illegality has created At Davos, the French Prime Minister Manuel ‗bottlenecks‘ of people arriving at restricted entry Valls declared that the ‗very idea of Europe‘ is points, which are then presented as ‗hordes, being questioned because of the issue of migra- floods and swarms‘ invading the continent. In tion. He may be right, but perhaps not in the reality, Europe could accommodate those com- way intended. The ‗migration crisis‘ is Europe‘s ing, and moreover needs migrants, in the face of ‗constitutive outside‘, an image reflecting back a declining and aging population. It also has a its colonial past, its contradictory economic moral responsibility for those fleeing wars which base, its foreign policies, and the hierarchical are the outcome of the interventionist politics of and power laden foundations of its claims to the western powers. equality and freedom, which are raced, classed, 1 and gendered. In the Europe of today, just as in activist interventions and resistance to policing. the historical past, the freedoms of the few con- A very special thank you to our editor, Carrie tinue to be won at the expense of the many. Benjamin. Also to all our CMDS members, and Over the last year, our work at the Centre has the wider, extremely active ‗migration communi- highlighted the growing political crisis around ty‘ at SOAS. And we greatly appreciate the input migration with a broad spectrum of collabora- of all our contributors. Many thanks in particular tive, transdisciplinary research. We have run to Avtar Brah and Danny Dorling. workshops, film screenings, and our regular seminar series, as well as the CMDS Marie Cu- rie ITN Summer School. Information on some of Parvathi Raman these events can be found in this newsletter. In our 2016 edition, ‗Policing Bodies, Borders and CMDS Chair Boundaries‘, our contributors also discuss border crossings, migration and inequality, the situation in Greece, as well as report on campaigns,

2 ate is then crucial. Border Crossings Borders are arbitrary constructions. But they assume specific meanings in relation to the history within which a particular border is inscribed. Each border enunciates its own narrative, tells Avtar Brah its own story even though it may share certain common themes with other borders. Borders can be abolished, as was the case between East and West Berlin in 1989 when the Berlin The globalised world in which we live today is wall which divided East and West Berlin came marked by multifarious borders and boundaries. down; and new borders may be installed, as has Despite the claim that the world has shrunk to a been the recent case in South Sudan when a global village, borders and boundaries are very new nation state was created. Each of these much in evidence. It is often argued that trans- sets of events tells its own story. How a border nationalism has served to undermine the nation is maintained and policed and who is kept out state, but although some of the functions of the and why is deeply embedded in the specific his- nation states may have become somewhat less tory of the countries involved. Social boundaries central, nation states retain very significant im- and territorial boundaries intersect in complex portance in articulating state sovereignty. But, ways. How are stigmatised groups of people— how do we think of borders and boundaries? on the basis of race, gender, class, caste, eth- Following Gloria Anzaldúa, I have argued that nicity, or sexuality, for instance—treated across borders take many and varied shapes. They are social, territorial, political, and cultural borders? not simply territorial, but are social, cultural, po- How are global mobilities negotiated within and litical, psychological, psychic and experiential across policies of immigration control? Histories (Brah 1996). It is important therefore to be clear of colonialism, imperialism, and contemporary as to the sense in which a particular concept of neoliberal regimes have created inequities and the border is invoked. A key question to my inequalities across the world. For instance, it is mind is whether the border in question is much easier for people from the global north to merely a mode of differentiation or whether, gain visas to travel and settle around the world alternatively, it expresses and marks a social than for the people from the global South to put division. This means that whilst we may wish to routes in the North. The economic and political abolish borders in the sense of a social division, power relations are central in the ways in which it may be problematic to argue along these lines all borders—whether social, cultural, psychic or if we are speaking about processes of differenti- territorial—are regulated. ation or categorization, as for instance, in terms of psychic boundaries necessary for the integrity Borders change and shift, and with these chang- of the individual‘s sense of herself. Social divi- es emerge different senses of being a member sions of say class, caste, gender, racism, and of a polity. Territorial boundary changes may homophobia are clearly important to dismantle produce varying modes of nationalisms. Crucial- and overcome. On the other hand, boundaries ly, borders are markers of identity. Border- underlying cognitive processes of categorization crossings are complex processes. At times they do not always entail hierarchy, although, of can be hazardous—for instance, in a homopho- course they too are not totally devoid of social bic context, there can be legal, social and psy- evaluation. The question of context in which bor- chological barriers to expressing queer identi- ders and boundaries are constituted and oper- ties. Borders between states which are not on

3 friendly terms may be quite impervious. Borders razor- wire fencing at the borders in countries signify the sovereignty of the state and as such such as Hungary. Although some states like signal whether the relations between given Germany have been relatively welcoming to the states are friendly or hostile. Borders symbolise refugees, others have been positively hostile. the ability of states to exercise control over the The migration flow has opened up divisions movement of people, goods, trade, capital and amongst the 28 nation states that make up the information. On the other hand, friendly states European Union. may not even require visas of its citizens who Another set of devastating consequences of the may wish to travel between them. International enforcement of territorial borders has marked politics are thoroughly enmeshed in the govern- the plight of so called ‗boat people‘ reaching Eu- ance of border crossings. rope via Libya. They too are fleeing intolerable It is commonplace to think of territorial borders conditions in the countries of origin and find to be at the edges of a nation. But it is increas- themselves in equally dire situation when trying ingly being argued that borders do not stop at to gain access to those European nation states the territorial borders but rather they permeate where they think they might have better opportu- the national, even global space. Étienne Balibar nities. One such arena where a vast human argues that what is crucial is what borders do at tragedy has been played out is in the Mediterra- particular historical moments. For him, borders nean Sea where over 2500 men, women and are ‗instruments of differentiation‘. If borders are children drowned last year trying to cross from enacted practices, and operate within the na- Libya to Southern Europe. They, too, are at the tional and global space they are arguably locat- mercy of a Europe riven by anti-migrant politics ed on the body (Whitley 2015), as for instance and policies and where, as in Britain, they are when immigration legislation permits fishing sometimes compared to ‗cockroaches‘ as by the raids at places of work, and when some immi- columnist for the newspaper Sun, Katie Hop- grants live under the constant threat of deporta- kins, designated as ‗marauding crowds‘ by the tion. In these instances, bodies carry borders on Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, or labelled them. This is nowhere more true than in Europe as ‗swarms‘ by the Prime Minister David Camer- today. on as if they were insects. Referring to refugees from Syria, Victor Orban, the prime minister of Global inequalities and poverty runs rife in our Hungary, has spoken of a ‗Muslim threat‘ to a war-riven world. These social and cultural condi- Christian culture (Observer 06.09.15). Not only tions underpin the emergence of new and intol- is this language inflammatory, it plays its part in erable journeys undertaken by refugees and mi- the constitution of the Gramscian grants from the global South to the global North. ‗commonsense‘ which in contemporary Europe These people—mostly refugees and asylum seems to blame all the major ills of society on seekers but also some ‗economic migrants‘— ‗migrants‘, ‗foreigners‘ and all manner of are facing increasingly impervious territorial bor- ‗outsiders‘. ders. During 2015, we witnessed the arrival by land and sea of over 500,000 refugees fleeing These journeys often begin in the impoverished, war ravaged countries such as Syria and Iraq at sometimes politically unstable and conflict- the shores of Greece without any possessions ridden or war-ravaged parts of the world such as or documents. These traumatic journeys contin- Syria, Chad, Eritrea, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Iraq ue as the refugees and migrants head north to and other parts of the Middle East, and north Germany, Austria, or Sweden. They have faced and West Africa. The refugees, asylum seekers serious difficulties on the way, as for instance and ‗economic migrants‘ are likely to reach the

4 staging post of Libya from where a growing as ISIL. There is a need to take into account the number make desperate attempts to reach Italy impact of western foreign policies in fostering or Greece. Sometimes 600 are squeezed into conditions underlying the impetus for global mi- vessels designed to carry 200, and the boats grations. We are faced with a global displace- are left to float in the Mediterranean in the hope ment crisis involving inter and intra state dis- that the migrants will be picked up by the Ital- placements. A majority of the displaced people ians or Greeks. Some, as I have already noted, move to neighbouring countries and are ‗settled‘ are drowned and never reach the European in the developing world. At present more than shores. Last year nearly 4000 bodies were re- 80% of the refugees are hosted by developing covered from the Mediterranean while others countries, yet the discourse in the West sug- were not found, according to newspaper reports. gests as if the opposite were the case. In con- These refugees and migrants are compelled to temporary regimes of globalisation, capital is leave home due to a variety of factors—war, re- free to move wherever it chooses to go but there ligious and other insurgencies, authoritarian and are closed borders for people, unless they hap- repressive political regimes, climate change- pen to be wealthy. related drought and famine, lack of jobs and em- The acute refugee and migrant crisis has gener- ployment and endemic poverty. They come with ated some action amongst EU countries to ame- hope but they are knocking on the doors of a liorate the situation. There have been proposals Europe singularly reluctant to let them in, espe- that would impose migrant quotas on the 28 cially if they are thought to be ‗economic mi- countries of the European Union under a distri- grants‘. bution system set by Brussels. But to many It is by now well known that migrants are likely countries these proposals have proved contro- to make an important economic and social con- versial and they have refused the acceptance of tribution to European countries. Furthermore, it a European Union mandatory refugee quota is widely understood that western economies system including Britain and a number of East need the labour of the ‗economic migrants‘, es- European countries. There are thus many ob- pecially to do low-paid jobs at the bottom rungs stacles in the way of these plans, made worse of the economy. Yet, the prevalence of racism by the killing of 130 people in Paris on 13 No- and xenophobia ensures that the migrants are vember by ISIL. We need political, economic, seen as a problem and a threat to jobs. The role moral and ethical based policies to deal with the of Europe itself is in part a contributory factor to situation. The problem is not ‗out there‘. We in the causes underlying these migrations. The Europe are fully implicated in the causes and writer Anders Lustgarten cites a report pub- consequences of the social conditions which lished in April 2015 by the International Consor- produce forced migrations. tium of Investigative Journalists which shows that ‗the World Bank displaced a staggering 3.4 million people in the last five years‘. He argues Anzaldúa, G (1987) Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, San Francisco: Spinsters/Aunt Lute. that by bombing the Middle East, the West de- Balibar, E (2002) Politics of the Other Scene, London: Verso. stroyed the infrastructure of countries such as Betts, Alexander, ‗Smuggling doesn‘t cause migration. We are ignoring the real problem‘, The Observer, 26 April, 2015. Libya without paying attention to what would re- Borger, Julian; Kassam, Ashifa; Neslen, Arthur ‗EU migrant quotas plan place it. Hence we find a social and political vac- close to Collapse‘ May 20, 2015, pp 2. Brah, A (1996) Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities, London uum in which in-fighting factions collide and the and New York: Routledge. broken state cannot prevent these places be- Editorial, ‗Desperate people are dying as Europe Dithers‘, The Observer, coming the centre of activities such as people 19 April 2015. Jones, Sam and Jackson, Jasper ‗UN criticises Sun over ‗cockroaches‘ smuggling and the emergence of groups such slur on migrants‘, The Guardian 25 April, 2015.

5 Lustgarten, Anders ‗Our tears won‘t solve this refugee scandal. Only ic Constructions of Home and Belonging justice will‘, The Guardian 18 April, 2015. Rice-Oakley, Mark, ‗It is not our caring that is the real killer‘, The Guardi- (CoHaB). In 2001 she was awarded an MBE an, 20 April, 2015. in recognition of her research. Her books in- Travis, Alan ‗May Hardens opposition to refugee quotas‘ 12 May 2015. clude Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Whitley, LM (2015) More than a Line: Borders as Embodied Site, PhD Thesis, Goldsmiths College, University of London. Identities; Hybridity and Its Discontents: Pol- Younge, Gary ‗No one makes this journey just to pick up benefits‘ The Guardian, 27 April 2015. itics, Science, Culture (edited with Annie Coombes); Thinking Identities: Racism, Eth- nicity and Culture and Global Futures: Migra- Avtar Brah is Professor Emeritus of Sociolo- tion, Environment and Globalization (both gy at Birkbeck College and a specialist in edited with Mary Hickman and Mairtin Mac race, gender and ethnic identity issues. She an Ghaill). was a member of the Advisory Board for the Marie Curie Initial Training Network Diaspor-

Debate with police over what constitutes “living” in a building photograph by Matt Fish 6 photograph by SOAS Goes To Calais

SOAS Goes To Calais has visited the 'Jungle' SOAS Goes To several times, carrying out different work varying from immediate aid to cultural projects. The Calais grassroots organisations which provide the only support available to those stranded in Calais provide hot meals, warm clothes, basic shelter, medical help, schools and so on; they need The 'Jungle' in Calais and other camps for volunteers every day. Theatre, artistic and migrants and refugees in northern France have musical projects are also taking place. These become emblematic of the UK's failure, and volunteers include people from all backgrounds: more widely that of Europe, to deliver a humane other students, left-wing activists, Muslim and or effective response to the current other community groups, individuals, but they humanitarian crisis across the EU, Turkey and always need more help. the Middle East. These unofficial encampments As students at an important and globally hold several thousand adults and children in the recognised centre of scholarship focusing on worst possible conditions, both ignored and Africa and the Middle East, we aim to continue oppressed by the British and French states. The providing support and donations, visiting the humans stuck here suffer from exposure, camp, and perhaps most importantly lobbying hunger, disease, police brutality and local here in London for immediate and effective antipathy, and many have died attempting to change. We demand that the British government cross to the UK or within the camps. take on its international responsibility to provide

7 a safe reception for refugees and asylum refugees, no matter where they come from, and seekers, and bring about a more humane and it must openly recognise its complex role within receptive policy for migrants to Britain more the current migration deadlock, which has generally. We want an end to the uninformed helped cause situations such as the Calais knee-jerk xenophobia which characterises 'Jungle'. contemporary migration policy. We also demand If you are interested in getting involved or would that SOAS, with its unique position as a global like to support us in other ways, please leader in research about the affected areas, contact [email protected]. take action within and beyond the university. It must offer full scholarships with living grants to

photograph by SOAS Goes To Calais

8 ployers. The border has moved from the physi- Everywhere Borders cal lines on a map, from the entrance to a ferry, of a train station or an airport to multiple daily, – Resistance Every- ordinary doorsteps. The border no longer stands on the threshold of a country but has become a where threshold to resources: a barrier which has to be jumped or crossed in order to access a home, a job, medication. Here, we examine a different change in border- Johannes B. Oertli & ing. From the borders on the outside of the nation state to the borders within the very heart of Kiri O. Santer urban spaces, we examine the process of predictability. If in Everyday Borders the border moved from the airport to the GP, it was, nevertheless, still predictable—stable. It had a fixed Cycling down Upper Street, we passed Angel place. Immigration raids can surge from any- tube station. Waiting at the lights, we caught where, at any given time; they render the border sight of three Immigration Enforcement vans. As ever more unpredictable. Under their newfound students of migration, we had been interested in mobility, these bordering practices instil a crucial the work of the Anti-Raids Network for a few temporal change. They erode further the feeling months, so we’d learned to pay attention to of being secure; that is, being able to anticipate those white vans. They are the moving pres- the border. ence of the UKBA, the sign that an immigration We take a closer look at this change through our raid could well be on the agenda. The mobile own experience with ICEs, not as survivors of border within. A frontier on wheels. raids—our secure citizenship status protects us In London, the UK Border Agency (UKBA)1 con- from such an experience—but through the ways ducts daily raids. Highly mobile Immigration such raids can and must be challenged. Be- Compliance and Enforcement Teams (ICEs) cause every history is a history of movement, a raid shops, markets and communities. These history of migration. Every border which de- ‗immigration raids‘ happen seemingly out of no- structs that history is artificial, a product of defi- where. When they do, a border is set up in the nitions, rights, and discourses. A fabrication, middle of a neighbourhood, a market. Everyone which combined with policing powers, leaves who wants to cross it—and who is deemed deep scars in people, families and communities. ‗suspicious‘ enough—gets their documents We decided to follow them, to seize the oppor- checked. Those who fail to present ‗convincing‘ tunity, to oppose the sudden apparition of the document are detained. They get deported, re- border, in a spontaneous, precise manner. We moved to the other side of the border. followed the three UKBA cars down towards Old The film Everyday Borders (Nava 2015) exam- Street. It was midday rush hour. On our bikes, ines the impact of the 2014 Immigration Act. It we were faster than their cars. We had to stop scrutinises the changes in bordering processes frequently on the road side to wait for them. over the last years in the UK in order to uncover We followed the vans and arrived at the same intricate processes of everyday border policing moment that they arrived at their target: the cen- which, as an outcome of these changes, have to tral square of one of those brute, modernist, be undertaken by landlords, NHS staff, and em-

9 large central London estates. Some restaurants, blurred the lines between targeted and targetor. chips shops, and an offie were clustered around In fact, collaborations between the UKBA and the square. They aimed for the bakery. It took some businesses are a known phenomenon. In us a few seconds to lock our bikes. As we en- Brick Lane for example, as raids are bad for tered the shop, the raid had already begun. business because they can occur in the midst of a busy Friday night, many restaurant owner are The UKBA officers were checking the docu- pressured into working together with the home ments of the people working in the bakery. The office in order to avoid the bad publicity owner of the bakery was chatting—in a visibly (interview with Anti-Raids activist 2015). friendly way—with, what seemed to be the officer in charge. A tall officer with a strong torso In the midst of the moment, it is difficult to deci- was blocking the entrance. We had to squeeze pher what you are intervening on, and which into the shop. parties are involved. Some of those sitting on the tables around us when we walked into the In liberal discourse, a nation equates to security. raided premise were evidently not bothered by Evidently, security does not only mean protec- the actions of the border team. Some were also tion from threats of war or impending disasters. openly opposed to our intervention—a fact they Security has also much to do with continuity and made very clear. everyday life. Tropes such as being able to pre- dict one's return in the evening when one leaves Intervening in a scene where the store owner the house in the morning are just as entrenched appeared to be complicit with the raid, signing within the imaginary of what it means to live in a the permission to let the border guards in and 'secure' environment as are ideas of 'terrorist- acting warm and welcoming towards them, free zones'. In relation to this, immigration raids made the act of interrupting the actions of the induce temporal uncertainty. Fundamentally, UKBA all the more uncomfortable. However as they impinge upon an aspect at the heart of the the geographer Ash Amin says, it is ‗the streets nation state: predictability. of the city and the Internet [that] have become the parliament of dissent, opposition, and differ- Strikingly, UKBA cars have a distinct resem- ence‘ (2015: 252). Everyday life happens in the blance to ambulances: same colour, same car, streets of the city. Thus, ‗islands of insurgen- same font on the side. Their mission, however, cy‘ (ibid.: 254) have to be filled with contradic- could hardly contrast more. The visual similari- tions and complications if they are to happen in ties in the vehicles provide an interesting junc- the (interrupted) context of everyday life. Re- ture point for thinking through how raids oper- sistance to raids will inevitably be messy, in the ate. Centrally, they inflict insecurity into commu- context of an unplanned intervention. But if raids nities. The sight of an ambulance is no longer happen on the very condition of unpredictability, simply a reminder of the NHS. It carries with it a fighting back can also take advantage of this warning, an uncertainty of what its nature is. spontaneity. Immigration raids, at their core, induce uncer- Everything happened quickly. One of us got into tainties. Complexities criss-crossed the site. The an argument with an old man, sipping his earl cook from the neighbouring restaurant shouted grey outside. No more attention on the raid in- out to one of the officers when they were leav- side. The other stood around and filmed wher- ing, something in a common language we could ever they could. But eventually, the home office not understand. He then turned to us, winking team left shortly afterwards. No one was de- and saying ‗my Pakistani friend‘. The chattiness tained. They raided only one shop. The whole of an officer with the business owner also action seemed quite pointless.

10 Why did they come there? We do not know. Did ties affected by raids and those who witness our presence help? We do not know either. them has to be accompanied by precise infor- However, while leaving in their cars, they turned mation, such as the rights which can be exer- around to us, filming us with their phone and cised in that moment. The simplicity of the Anti- gave us the finger. Raids 'what to do during an immigration raid' in- struction cards (next page) lies in the fact that Immigration raids happen very abruptly, seem- they are a material circulation of that knowledge. ingly out of nowhere. The decision to resist has to happen instantly but as we have shown, that If immigration raids embody the border and decision to take action is taken in a blurry mo- make it a condition - the condition of unpredicta- ment, where it is often unclear what exactly is bility—then resistance has to attack here, taking going on. However, it is important to note that the immigration raid‘s imprecision, its unpredict- raids can only happen under the very condition ability. And this is where academia and activ- of this blurriness within the moment. The speed ism3 can come together; in sharing the infor- of interventions makes the margin of error in re- mation, the knowledge needed. Not only about lation to the law relatively wider. As such, intimi- our and the ICEs‘ rights, but also in sharing the dation, racial profiling and abuse of power are knowledge that immigration raids (and the re- more commonly the source of a raid's 'success' sistance to them) are happening. To become rather than a strict adherence to legal proce- one more knot in the Anti-Raids‘ network. To dure. One example of this would be the sheer turn the politics of threat, of unpredictability, of question ‗Can I see your papers?‘ Everyone—in the omnipresence of the border into the politics most circumstances—would be allowed to say of possibility, of predictability. The predictability ‗no!‘ and walk away2. However, sudden and of- that raids will be met by resistance. ten aggressive appearances of a swarm of peo- One of the Anti-Raids‘ main aim is to share in- ple in uniforms intimidates many into obediently formation about raids. Here we end with showing their (lack of) papers. Rancière, whose core proposition is that Eventually though, the greyness of the law is ‗equality is not a fiction‘ (2009: 48). Knowledge also a space for resistance. The ‗field of threat‘ about a legal situation, about a few simple steps and ‗chaos‘ not only intimidates and traumatizes one has the right to take in order to fight back, but also leaves cracks and gaps for defiance; can perform that very equality. Lived reality can politics as a ‗condition of possibility‘. This is the be seized as a fighting ground, despite its mess- proposition of the Anti-Raids Network. On their iness. Then, ICEs no longer have the monopoly website and when they conduct workshops, they of performing within a grey zone of the law, and offer simple steps one can take in order to coun- resistance makes the most of the complexity of ter the raids. Sharing information on social me- lived reality. dia about the whereabouts of a raid as it happens may mean that more people are able to support those who are being intimidated. More 1. The Home Office has now rebranded its border agency to 'Visas &Immigration'. Nevertheless we make a conscious decision to keep people standing in solidarity with the raided can using the acronym UKBA. be an important encouragement for the first sim- 2. In the UK there is no obligation to identify oneself when the police (or immigration forces) ask. Only in specific circumstances such as when ple step of refusing to interact with officers. driving a vehicle or when having committed a criminal offence can this information be demanded (see Netpol.org) . Therefore, it seems that the outline to a solution 3. However blurry this distinction is, and conceding the considerable to calm some of these trepidations and facilitate amount of overlap between these categories . the road to taking action lies in knowledge. A Amin, A. (2015). Animated Space. Public Culture 27, 239–258. call for autonomous action from those communi- Nava, O. (2015). Everyday Borders (available on-line: https:// 11 vimeo.com/126315982, accessed 3 September 2015). legal advice to asylum seekers and undocu- Rancière, J. (2009). Hatred of democracy. London: Verso. mented people in Switzerland.

Johannes Balthasar Oertli is completing his Kiri Santer was a student of the MA in Migra- MA in Migration and Diaspora Studies at tion and Diaspora Studies at SOAS last year. SOAS, University of London. He is currently She wrote her dissertation on the politics of writing his dissertation about forensic age resistance to immigration raids in London. assessment in asylum applications of un- Since leaving SOAS, she has been involved documented asylum seeking minors in Swit- in various border monitoring and solidarity zerland. In parallel, he works as a case work- projects with refugees on the Balkan Route. er for Solidaritätsnetz Bern giving social and

12 months and had been living in Belgium much Policing them- longer. Many of them had learned French and Dutch, and they were well versed in Belgian bu- selves: Undocu- reaucratic systems. Initially the church wel- comed the Afghan refugees, and church officials mented migrants’ offered them a great deal of support. But as the months passed, according to the men I inter- sense of belonging viewed, the church‘s hospitality began to wear thin. Sam and Amir, two of my participants, ex- in Brussels plained that the church officials had been trying to force them to leave. The church had even at- tempted to involve the police, but the police refused to intervene. Sam said the police did not want to interfere in church matters. At the time Shannon Damery of my fieldwork, the men had restricted themselves to one corner of the church, and church activities continued despite the presence of the long-term occupants.

From January to June of 2015 I went to church. Inside the church the men had created an ‗info This may not sound like such an interesting fact point‘ where they displayed photos and infor- of my life, but I went to church during this period mation about their struggle in Belgium and the in order to spend time with a group of undocu- dangerous situation in Afghanistan. I sometimes mented and asylum-seeking Afghans who were witnessed them helping to clean up after a in search of refuge. At one point there were hun- church event, perhaps in an effort to be good dreds of men, women, and children living in the ‗tenants.‘ Despite the fact that they had no ac- church, but by the time I began my fieldwork, cess to church toilet facilities and that the elec- there were only 14 men still residing there. I tricity was often turned off (Sam speculated that spent time with them in the church and accom- these were efforts to encourage them to move panied them on protest marches, and I became out) they remained in the church. They were very interested in how they appropriated the looking for another place or places to stay, but space of the church and the city streets and had been unsuccessful. They said that they ‗performed their belonging‘ (Becerra 2014). This hoped their demonstrations in front of the Office ‗performance‘ and their sense of belonging des étrangers (Foreigners Office) would eventu- clearly involved the ways in which they claimed ally result in positive decisions on their asylum rights that were designated for citizens, but cases, thus enabling them to find other accom- more surprisingly, they also demonstrated their modation. belonging in their adherence to rules. This in- Marches and demonstrations were a key prac- volved not only their relationships with local law tice through which the men sought to engage enforcement, but also the ways in which they with the community and attempt to secure their policed themselves. futures. In her work, Becerra examines the ways These men were welcome and unwelcome in in which citizenship differs in theory and in prac- many conflicting ways and their interactions with tice. She explains that there are ways in which the police played a significant role in their expe- undocumented migrants, who are denied formal rience of the space of the city. Most of the men citizenship, still engage in practices that allow had been in the church for at least several 13 them to ‗share in the experience of citizen- During one march there was some kind of con- ship‘ (2014:335). One of the examples she cites flict and the riot police were called. I was never is the political act of protesting, and I focused on able to find out exactly what the conflict was this practice in my own work. At each major about, but several people said it had to do with sans-papiers (undocumented) march there were someone, or several people, trying to block the always a few people wearing reflective yellow path of the marchers and making some racist vests with ‗sécurité‘ (security) written on the remarks. What I did see was that the people do- back in what looked like black permanent mark- ing ‗security‘ for the march made it to the conflict er. During the march the ‗security‘ team would before the police. Ultimately the police did not walk alongside the group and ask us to stay off have to intervene, and the march continued the sidewalk or to speed up if we were lagging peacefully. On the next page, you can see the too far behind. When the march was over they men in the yellow security vests in front of the would take off their vests and disappear into the police (wearing orange vests). Obviously, the crowd. Later, Sam and Amir said that it was bet- benefits and drawbacks of this ‗self-policing‘ ter if ‗they‘ did their own security. The people in method can be debated, but that is the not my vests were members of the undocumented com- aim here. What was more important in my own munity that took turns to ensure that rules were work was that the undocumented migrants followed during the marches. It soon became chose to undertake this practice in order to clear that the streets themselves were a kind of avoid problems, and that the police respected stage where, as Becerra (2014) states, belong- this and did not interfere. ing was performed. Becerra explains that ‗public Too much policing could certainly contribute to space serves as the terrain where urban dwell- feelings of alienation and ‗non-belonging‘ and it ers engage in contestations over the meaning(s) is significant that the Afghan men, and the rest of belonging and nonbelonging; it is where of the undocumented community, felt safe membership-in its multiple expressions—is en- enough to organize and carry out these acted, negotiate and embodied‘ (2014:332). marches. As Vanessa May points out, ‗…if a

photograph by Shannon Damery 14 person feels unsafe or otherwise unable to ac- always sure to have a permit for their demon- cess a space, they are likely to avoid strations and they coordinated with the local po- it‘ (2013:143). This even goes as far as to im- lice to organize their marches. In fact, Amir said pact ideas of citizenship. ‗If too many public that he got to know some of the police officers spaces are like this, this reduces not only peo- through this process. A couple of the officers ple‘s sense of belonging, but also their sense of told him that if he ever got picked up for not hav- a ‗right to the city‘ or citizenship (Young, ing papers then he could give their names and 1990)‘ (May 2013:143). In the instances cited they would try to help him. here, the reactions of the police, as well as the During these demonstrations my research par- undocumented community‘s practice of self- ticipants were creating social connections, policing, seemed to contribute to their sense of learning about the legal system in Belgium, and ownership and belonging in the city streets. claiming the right to protest by going through the In addition to attending these larger sans- same official legal channels that everyone must papiers demonstrations, the Afghan men also navigate. In other instances, the men worried organized demonstrations that only included the about being picked up by the police, but during members of the undocumented, or formerly un- the marches they felt they had official protection documented, Afghan community. About once a and this contributed the sense of ease they week they would walk from the church to the Of- seemed to feel. They were comfortable in the fice des étrangers with Afghan flags, signs street during these demonstrations, and even in about justice, and a megaphone. One of the the very act of protesting their official and bu- men always put on a yellow security vest, and reaucratic exclusion, they were finding some there were always a couple of police officers level of inclusion and acceptance (Becerra around, but often they were causally leaning 2014). This is not to say that there was never against the Office des étrangers building or tension between the police and the undocu- chatting with the Afghans. Sam said they were mented community. However, in the context of

photograph by Shannon Damery 15 these marches, it was clear the method of Shannon received her MA from NUI ‗policing‘ on both the part of the undocumented Maynooth and is currently a PhD candidate community and the police themselves, contribut- and Marie Curie early stage researcher in ed to the sense of belonging that my partici- framework of the 7FP INTEGRIM project in pants felt in the streets of Brussels. CEDEM at the University of Liège. She completed her MA thesis on the home-making

practices of young people residing in state Becerra, M. V. Q. (2014). Performing belonging in public space: Mexican and non-state governed institutions in Aus- migrants in New York City. Politics and Society, 42(3), 331-357. tria. Her current work focuses on the ways in May, V. (2013). Connecting self to society: Belonging in a changing which legal migratory status impacts the world. Hampshire, England: Palgrave Macmillan. home connections and sense of belonging

among young, first-generation migrants. Her *The research leading to these results has received funding from the broader research interests include the an- European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 316796 thropology and sociology of children/young people, unaccompanied minors, irregular migration, cultural production, socio-cultural integration and incorporation, and concepts of home and belonging.

Police facilitating illegal eviction photograph by Matt Fish 16 from the First Gulf War began to arrive in Pa- The other side of the tras, lodging in the abandoned train station of Saint Dionysus. The settlement was located just Greek refugee cri- opposite the fences surrounding the old port in the centre of the city, and its occupiers could sis: the transit port initially rely on local citizens and the Church for the provision of food or clothes. In those same of Patras years, the first clandestine route to Italy started to operate: migrants slowly found a way to jump onto or slide under the lorries directed inside the port area, either independently or through the help of the first organised smuggling networks. Marco Mogiani The 9/11 terrorist attacks and the launch of Op- eration Enduring Freedom exacerbated the already gruelling situation in Afghanistan, intensi- ‗We are with birds, and birds don‘t know bor- fying mass displacement and opening different ders, because they have neither maps nor pass- migratory routes. Thousands of Afghan refugees ports‘ started to flow into Greece and Patras in particular—considered the only possible escape route This line, originally written in Arabic, stands out toward Italy and the rest of Europe—while the in the atrium at the entrance of a small building, presence of Kurdish people in town began to accompanied by a portrayal of its author, the decrease. The Afghans occupied one of the popular Sudanese songwriter Mustafa Sid Ah- wealthiest areas around the old port, establish- med. The building in question used to host the ing a makeshift camp with its own organisations administrative offices of the huge textile factory and rules. However, the slow yet constantly in- of Peiraiki-Patraiki, one of the most important creasing numbers of immigrants, together with industrial complexes in Greece until the late the willingness to display a nice and clean city to 1980s. The creators of the graffiti are Sudanese the rest of the world for the 2004 Olympic refugees that occupy the premises of that now Games and as the 2006 European Capital of abandoned manufacturing plant. Those few Culture, raised opposition among local institu- words represent the inner dream of all the peo- tions and neighbours. ple living in that building: escaping from Greece and reaching Italy and northern Europe by all Nonetheless, the situation worsened. In 2007, possible means. However, the situation in Pa- the camp reached its highest expansion with tras, the third most populated city and third most about 1,500 occupiers, while hundreds of other important harbour in Greece, has changed sig- Afghan refugees had settled in a small wood nificantly over the past twenty years, making it one kilometre north of the camp and the port, almost impossible for migrants to sneak under a which was informally called ‗the jungle‘. Inside lorry and illegally embark toward Italian ports. the main self-organised camp, comprised of about 200 tents and sheds distributed haphaz- The first migratory movements in the city of Pa- ardly, the Afghans also built a mosque and few tras—historically known as ‗the gate to the shops, and some charismatic people were ap- West‘ for its strategic position facilitating com- pointed to keep order within the camp and man- mercial trades and emigration toward Western age relationships outside it. The presence of Europe and the United States—date back to the Doctors Without Borders and Kinisi, a local early 1990s. Kurdish and Iraqi refugees fleeing

17 movement for the rights of migrants and refu- ing into the city, going to other settlements gees founded in late 2007, helped the occupiers around the port, or moving to the northern bor- of the camp deal with everyday problems, der with Albania or FYROM to try to leave the providing medical assistance, supplying relief country from other ways. Since that day, the is- goods, and mitigating the difficult hygienic con- sue of migrants and refugees in Patras has ditions. In the same period, the local citizens been quietly swept under the carpet, an action fighting against the presence of the immigrants made more acute by the opening of the new in their neighbourhood formed an association to port two years later, further south from the city denounce ‗the fall of the city‘, as it was named, centre. Yet the problems persisted. prompting governmental authorities to close the On the one hand, the importance of Patras as a camp and solve the problems of decay, filth, and transit city for migrants heading toward Italy and unemployment that it was assumed to cause. the rest of Europe seems to be strictly connect- In February 2008, after the first prefectural deci- ed with the relevance of its port. For example, sion to close the camp was disputed and reject- the number of lorries transiting through the port ed, the protests of citizens and local authorities of Patras reached its peak in 2008, the year be- became even louder. One year later, another fore the destruction of the camp, when more decision from the prefecture of Achaia achieved than 300,000 vehicles crossed the city to em- its purposes: on the early morning of the 12th of bark toward Italian ports. However, the comple- July 2009 the police closed the main access tion of the Egnatia Road, which connects Istan- routes to the port area and entered the camp. bul to Igoumenitsa, relocated international traffic They cleared the whole area, evacuating or ar- to the northern regions of Greece and effectively resting its remaining occupiers, and eventually cut out the port of Patras. Therefore, in the set it on fire. Most of the people living there al- words of a Greek transport planner and consult- ready knew what was about to happen, and had ant, ‗by the time the new port started its opera- previously abandoned the place, either spread- tion in July 2011, it was already out-dated‘.

Graffiti made by Sudanese refugees in the factory of Peiraiki-Patraiki, photograph by Marco Mogiani 18 Planned in the early 1990s to alleviate the un- ing for an answer for ten years, while newcom- bearable congestion throughout the city centre ers can have their claims processed in about and to withstand the anticipated increase in traf- one year. ‗The awkward aspect of the old proce- fic in the coming decades, the new port had a dure‘, as a human rights lawyer noticed, ‗is that slow-paced start with a dramatic decrease in the the police officers who were arresting the mi- flow of vehicles. This reduction in the port traffic, grants were the same people to whom the mi- along with increasingly strict security measures grants themselves had to submit their asylum and the opening of other commercial and migra- claim‘. tory routes, has definitely contributed to a paral- The old asylum system was deficient, and the lel decrease in the presence of immigrants. European Court of Human Rights regularly con- However, migrants and refugees kept coming to demned Greek authorities for their cruel and in- Patras as it was still one of the possible routes human treatment of asylum seekers who found to other European destinations. The first Suda- it difficult to navigate asylum procedures. The nese and Somali refugees started to arrive in new system, however, seems to have its prob- the late 2000s, settling at the beginning in the lems as well. While the recognition rate of asy- then-abandoned train station of Saint Andrew, lum or subsidiary protection has undoubtedly just behind the Cathedral with the same name, improved—soaring from 0.8% in 2012 to 28.7% and afterwards in the aforementioned factory of in 2014—local and national NGOs and asylum Peiraiki-Patraiki when the new port entered into seekers have reported a lack of dedicated per- function. Afghan refugees, on the other hand, sonnel to examine applications and conduct in- moved into the southern part of the town only terviews. Asylum seekers often have to queue when the old port ceased to serve the interna- every morning for several days in order to be tional traffic to and from Italy, occupying instead selected and submit their applications. The the old paper mills of Ladopoulos and the aban- problems related to the asylum system, com- doned wood factory of Avex according to their bined with the restrictions of movement imposed different ethnic backgrounds or affiliations. The by the Dublin Conventions and the on-going whole former industrial area, in fact, stretches economic crisis, have reinforced the role of out just in front of the new port, separated only Greece as a country of passage and Patras as a by the national road and a fence of one and a transit port. half kilometres in length. Refugees, however, can still find themselves Not only has the number of refugees decreased stuck in the city for years, waiting for their asy- over the past few years, but also their legal con- lum claim to be approved or for a chance to em- dition has remarkably changed. In June 2013, a bark on a ferryboat to Italy. In fact, if the number new asylum system entered in operation, ap- of refugees in Patras has significantly de- pointing an independent commission for the ex- creased since the burning of the old camp to be- amination of the asylum claims. Moreover, with tween 200-300 people in the three factories as the Syrian crisis and the inflow of thousands of of March 2015, the security measures of the displaced people, a special exception has been port have been considerably improved, strength- reserved for Syrians, who now can obtain inter- ened and intensified, making such opportunities national protection in few months‘ time. Howev- uncertain and unlikely. The old port did not have er, the Hellenic Police are still responsible for enough space for security forces to operate. In the asylum applications submitted before that fact, the ISPS fence, which is supposed to cre- date, thus creating a two-way system in which ate a restricted area within the port to guarantee some previous asylum seekers have been wait- the correct implementation of port facility opera-

19 The 'atrium' of Ladopoulos factory, photograph by Marco Mogiani tions, coincided with the external borders of the once they arrive from Turkey to one of the nu- port zone, making the expulsion of undesired merous islands of the Aegean archipelago, are people from the embarking area really compli- registered and given a thirty-day limit within cated. The new port, instead, has a buffer zone which they must leave the country or fall into ir- between the internal ISPS fence and the exter- regularity. In other words, Patras is chosen by nal perimeter of the port zone: three distinct and would-be birds, dreaming about flying over the definite areas are thus clearly formed, each of Adriatic Sea and arriving at Italy and northern them supervised and patrolled by different secu- European countries, leaving aside the despica- rity forces. ble living conditions in those abandoned and for- gotten factories. In light of recent developments, with the opening of another (although problematic) route through the Balkans, Patras has become a secondary Marco Mogiani is now a PhD student in De- route for migrants and refugees intent upon velopment Studies at SOAS after consolidat- reaching the rest of Europe. Still, it is the first ing a human rights background in Italy. His choice for destitute migrants who either cannot research looks at the impact of neoliberal afford to pay smuggling networks or the travel policies and securitisation practices on the expenses to cross FYROM and Serbia, or those spatial configuration of the port/border area who would like to reach Italian shores inde- of Patras and on the living space of border pendently, by their own means, often working subjectivities (migrants, workers, inhabit- informally while waiting for asylum recognition or ants). A thirst for reading, part-time activism their travel documents. Moreover, it is still a val- in political and humanitarian associations, id choice for unaccompanied young men and and an overwhelming passion for travelling boys, sometimes minors, who put their lives at complete his personality. risk to sneak under a lorry and illegally embark on a ferryboat. There are also migrants who,

20 many undocumented migrants have been pho- The “Laissez- tographed either mid-desperate climb or in de- jected stasis. From the nearby forests where passer”: A show of people gather before their border-crossing attempts, the twinkling lights of the city can start to force, take on a magical quality as Europe‘s pull becomes stronger with every night spent in makeshift tents. Even though few intend to stay in Ce- resistance, and a uta, the city represents the start of a better life; opportunities to find work, education, freedom, new beginning human rights, and perhaps even love. Today, however, I‘m less interested in the events that have brought these people to Europe, as instead I want to understand better what their future holds after making it to Spain. The im- Daniel Fisher portance of following migrant journeys within Europe is, of course, currently being highlighted by the media reports in Calais2, Greece, and Macedonia3. It‘s 8:30 in the morning and I‘m sitting in the foy- Back in the ferry hall, the first groups of (mainly er of Ceuta‘s ferry hall, opposite the doors that sub-Saharan) migrants walk through the double lead to the security and passport control area. doors, passing the armed Guardia Civil officers Passengers going to mainland Spain are sub- to enter the foyer. Sixty-three people have been jected to airport-style controls here as Ceuta, granted their ‗Laissez-passer‘ today—the per- although an autonomous city under Spanish ad- mission needed to travel to mainland Spain. For ministration, is not in the European Union‘s (EU) most, today is a big occasion as their time in Schengen zone. Today, however, I am not in- Spain has been far from what they had ex- tending to travel to mainland Spain. Instead, I pected. The reality is that after having arrived in am waiting here because of a rumour, an event the city, they will have been held for a day and a described to me by a man from Sierra Leone night in a police cell, and interviewed by the po- that I just met on the street—I am here to see lice who try to ascertain the ‗country of origin‘ of the ‗Laissez-passer’. But as I sit in the air- each migrant. Most have been warned of this in conditioned foyer with the tinny radio music advance of their arrival and claim to be from playing on an endless loop, I start to consider countries to which they know the Spanish au- that perhaps my source was having a laugh at thorities cannot currently repatriate them (e.g. my expense. Perhaps today‘s morning will be Guinea and Sierra Leone). Yet few are prepared uneventful after all. After waiting for over an for life in the Ceuta‘s ‗open‘ detention centre. hour and half, and just as I‘m about to leave, I 1 see four Guardia Civil officers entering the foy- Following their release from the police station, er—one of whom is carrying a shotgun. I start to undocumented migrants are admitted to the relax… they must be coming. CETI (Centro de Estancia Temporal de Inmi- grantes)—the temporary reception centre for Situated in northern Morocco, opposite the Rock immigrants—which functions as an ‗open‘ de- of Gibraltar‘s looming figure, Ceuta is now most tention centre but allows people to leave its famous for the metallic fence which separates walls during the day. As it is technically not a Europe from the Global South and on which

21 detention centre4, undocumented migrants can tra time available to them to repatriate as many theoretically be held here indefinitely while the of the new arrivals as possible—thereby turning Spanish authorities attempt to organise their re- the whole city into an open holding area for mi- patriation. Moreover, without documents, none grants. Trained interviewers quiz migrants upon can leave Ceuta as the autonomous city is out- arrival, fingerprints are checked against numer- side the Schengen zone. As a result, undocu- ous international databases, embassies are mented migrants spend months in Ceuta await- contacted to arrange repatriations, and individu- ing their Laissez-passer, trapped between the als (women especially) are asked to cooperate border control at the port and the metal fence with the police to identify people smugglers in they have crossed. During this time they sleep return for papers. Yet the reality is that very few around ten to a bedroom, ‗work‘ by helping lo- sub-Saharan migrants are ever successfully re- cals park their cars in return for pennies, and patriated, as little or no proof can be found of dream about what the future might hold. Many in their nationalities other than what the migrants their depression turn to drink, and kill time with claim to be, nor will many embassies cooperate cheap beer and wine behind a nearby factory or with the Spanish authorities. As a result, out of in the campsite they have created (which is rem- over a thousand entrants to the city, less than iniscent of their time spent in the forests of Mo- thirty people have so far been transferred to the rocco). The high expectations for life in Europe Spanish detention centres on the mainland to be mean that their predicament hits home like a forcibly removed from Europe in 2015. double blow, with the Laissez-passer growing in The comparative powerlessness of the Spanish importance with each passing day. authorities becomes clearer throughout the The Spanish authorities, meanwhile, use the ex- summer as the amount of time migrants have to

photograph by Daniel Fisher 22 spend in Ceuta before they are granted Laissez- defeat on the part of the Spanish authorities. In passer declines. Though previous research con- the Ceuta‘s ferry terminal, however, the Laissez- ducted by Ruben Andersson in 2011 suggested passer is celebrated as a joyous occasion. that many would indeed be subjected to indefi- Alongside the sixty-three people who have been nite stay in Ceuta, during my visit at the start of granted their passage to the mainland come spring (2015) the average wait was six over a hundred and fifty people to wish them a months—and by late July it dropped to just four safe journey—mostly other CETI inhabitants but months. There is even talk amongst the inhabit- there‘s also the occasional nun or Red Cross ants of the CETI of it falling further as more peo- worker. The foyer quickly becomes a maelstrom ple manage to enter the city despite the best ef- of activity as people pose for pictures with de- forts of both the Spanish and Moroccan border parting friends and wish each other good luck. guards. Many of those who have been granted Laissez- passer today are wearing their best clothes to The Laissez-passer, therefore, is more than celebrate the occasion (which have often been simply a written permission to cross to the bought months in advance and never worn) so Spanish mainland; it is an acknowledgment of that that the ferry hall almost feels like a film premi- ere, the red carpet being the line leading to the passport control doors surround- ed by people with cameras. To one side of the throng, a man stands alone with tears in his eyes as he clutches a Red Cross certif- icate stating that he has completed a basic Spanish course—the only thing he has to show for his first six months in Europe. Despite the joy, nobody really knows what lies ahead.

The Laissez-passer is, of course, almost as significant an event to those not going as it is to the sixty- three who are leaving today. Many have come to the ferry terminal not just to see off their friends, but also to see proof that soon they too will be allowed to leave. The knowledge that there will be an end to their time in Ceuta gives the photograph by Daniel Fisher 23 strength needed to return to the streets where nods in silent acknowledgment and fresh luke- they beg in the hope that soon their journey can warm beers are opened, one man stands up commence again. As a border crossing event, and begins to jump for joy. ―He made it, he‘s then, the Laissez-passer is a bizarre spectacle. there!‖ he shouts as he shows the rest of the Despite the show of force on the side of the group a picture on his phone. As the phone is Spanish authorities, it is a peaceful border passed around the group others start to join in crossing of undocumented migrants on their with his praise. Finally the phone is passed my way to mainland Europe unlike any featured in way. On the screen is a selfie, a selfie of a man current media headlines. from Cameroon standing underneath the Eiffel tower in Paris. The group has hope again. As the Laissez-passer unfolds, however, I cannot help but feel fearful for those about to board the ferry. When they arrive in mainland Spain 1. Similar to France‘s Gendarmerie or Italy‘s Carabinieri, the Guardia Civil is a military force charged with police duties, including border secu- they will be offered room and board by an NGO rity. for a maximum of six months, during which time 2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33729024 they will be expected to leave the country. While 3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34026114 4. There are two types of detention centres in Spain. The first, called CIE Spain does offer citizenship to those who have (Centros de Internamiento de Extranjeros), operate as closed detention centres. Unlike CIE, the CETI of Ceuta and Melilla are ‗open‘ detention lived there for three years, in order to receive centres where migrants are permitted to come and go throughout the day. There is a maximum detainment period of two months in the CIE, their passage to the mainland, the migrants though there is no maximum period of stay in the CETI as people are notionally only being sheltered. Migrants to be forcibly removed from have signed an expulsion order which prohibits either Ceuta or Melilla must first be transferred to a CIE on the Iberian them from applying for papers (other than asy- Peninsula. 5. The recast Dublin Regulation establishes the principle that only one lum) for at least five years. On its own this does EU country, usually the country of first arrival, is responsible for examin- ing an asylum application. Numerous reports have criticised the regula- not pose an insurmountable problem as most tion since its inception in 2003; arguing that it creates illegality, increases time spent in detention, and can cause severe delays in asylum applica- are intending to leave Spain to find family, tions. friends, connections, countries with a better treatment of asylum seekers, or job opportunities. However, the same document they signed Daniel Fisher is a PhD candidate in Geogra- also prohibits their travel outside the borders of phy at the University of Edinburgh. He holds Spain. In combination with the Dublin Regula- a BA in Geography from the University of tion, this means that none will be able to leave Cambridge and an MSc in Ecological Eco- Spain legally, or apply for asylum elsewhere5. nomics from the University of Edinburgh. For those still waiting in Ceuta, those are prob- His research on border technologies and mi- lems for the future. Problems that right now, grant action has already taken him on jour- they only wish they had. neys to Ceuta, Fnideq, Warsaw and Glas- gow. When he is not writing his PhD, he vol- Three days after the Laissez-passer I‘m sharing unteers for a centre that lends practical sup- a meal with a group of Cameroonians in the for- port and solidarity to asylum seekers in the est outside the CETI in Ceuta. The mood is UK. downcast as nobody knows whether or not they will be granted Laissez-passer. Relations between Cameroon and Spain have improved recently, and it is highly likely that they will be forcibly removed from Spain—and this group had not been forewarned. ―Europe has taught us only how to dream, yet does not give us the chance to act‖, says my friend. While the group

24 Similarly, it is mainly young men (but some An Interview women and some children) who die on the boats leaving Libya for Europe. Far more peo- with Danny ple, mainly middle class Syrians, take a boat trip of just a few miles from Turkey to the Greek is- Dorling lands. Many more will travel entirely by land and don‘t go through mainline train stations.

There are many new migrants, but most are not travelling by the routes that are concentrated on Carrie Benjamin: The theme for this year's by the media. And all these new migrants are CMDS newsletter is the policing of borders, small in number compared to the numbers of boundaries and bodies. It seems that since the people moving around Europe legally. At the election the government has been reasserting same time, the proportion of young people living its anti-immigration stance by further pushing in Europe continues to fall after decades of very border security into other countries, including a low fertility. security fence around the Eurotunnel in Calais, while simultaneously trying to make individual We know very little about out-migration from Eu- citizens responsible for policing people that are rope or the UK. in irregular situations, including a plan which will force landlords to evict tenants without going through the courts. How can we best under- CB: So what do we know about out-migration, stand and contextualize this seemingly new and why is this an under-researched area? show of force? Or is it just 'business as usual‘?

DD: We know about people who are drawing Danny Dorling: I think that what has happened pensions who live abroad. We can try to guess during the summer of 2015 is business as usual how many people are living abroad because we as far as the UK government is concerned, but know how many were born in Britain (or Europe) with enhanced opportunities for those who want in each year and how many of each age born to try to make political capital out of other peo- here are still here—and how many have died ples‘ plight. here by that age—so the rest must either be abroad or have gone abroad and died there. We The media tend to focus on the most dramatic, also know about people living abroad who are deadly, and least successful migrant flows. For registered to vote in the UK. the UK this is young men (mainly) trying to get onto trains coming through the channel tunnel. What we could do is enumerate all overseas Many die. The numbers that get through are people on census days, every ten years. The very low. Netherlands does this by using its embassies abroad. Most people who enter and stay in the UK illegally do so through airports. Some three million It is under-researched because we assume it people travel through airports like Heathrow doesn‘t matter. But of course, all these people every week or so. The tiny proportion of that can return (at any time) and many are elderly. number who are using forged documents far out For those surviving on a pension abroad if the -strips those who gain entrance through the tun- value of their pension drops when the pound nel. drops they may have to return.

25 CB: What are the future implications as a result of this conflict between the political will to dis- CB: When you presented at SOAS in the spring, tract the public with immigration regulations and you put the national elections into a global con- a growing need for immigration and workers? text arguing that perhaps the world is not in as bad a state as politicians would have you be- lieve, and that the UK is adjusting to its 'new, DD: At some point people might realise that less important place in the world'. Do you think even a government that says it wants to get mi- that the push for the EU referendum—in which gration down to the tens of thousands never ac- many politicians and journalists have highlighted tually meant this. It was a stupid thing to try to protecting Britain's borders and its citizens' inter- do but also they did not try as hard as they ests—is, as you have argued, another attempt might to do it because so many people are at maintaining global relevance? needed, particularly young people in an ageing society. This need is made more acute by ine-

qualities in the UK, which are high. Countries DD: The EU referendum is being held by mis- with high inequalities have a very high demand take. The Tory party did not expect to gain an of low-paid jobs to be done by younger people. absolute majority of MPs at the 2015 general This is partly why the USA has such high rates election—so the elite of that party thought it of immigration. It is immigrants who make the would not have to hold the referendum— beds that Donald Trump sleeps in when he is on however it gives that party something to talk the campaign trail in the USA. It is immigrants about on its own terms, rather than having to who cook his food and ensure that the sewage discuss issues about the dire state of the UK system works to take away his waste. Politicians labour market or why housing is so badly distrib- on the right talk about how much they hate im- uted in the UK between rich and poor. Just like migrants while also using their labour more and scaring people about immigrants coming more. through the tunnel, the EU referendum allows the Conservatives to try to scare people about the EU—all deflecting from people asking who is CB: You've written and spoken extensively on really taking so much of the wage they should inequality and poverty in Britain. What drew you be getting for the work they do, or who is charg- to this topic? ing them such a high rent for their home.

As the UK becomes more unequal—and more DD: Growing up in Britain in the 1970s, when like the USA—the scope for jobs at the bottom equality was higher and poverty was in many increases as the bottom gets wider—so (just like ways less acute, drew me to look at this as ine- in the USA) the opportunities for migrants from quality rose and poverty deepened. When I was poor countries increase. young hardly anyone was homeless and living More equitable countries have fewer job oppor- on the streets, just a few old men. That changed tunities at the bottom of their labour markets be- in the 1980s and I saw people my age sleeping cause the bottom is far higher and smaller in rough for the first time. In the 1990s we saw fi- size. Wages are higher for the poorest 20% in nanciers getting richer and richer. In the nough- almost all the rest of Europe as compared to the ties came the crash but it effected them least, UK. and in this decade we see the modern day equivalent of 1930s soup-kitchens opening

again—food banks. It was events like that drew

26 me to look at this more and more. In just the last multiples/ which reports on the pay gaps be- five years the 1% have taken a huge extra slice tween top and bottom in many public and pri- of wealth, especially through buying up property vate bodies. So far the only business to actually and forcing others to rent from them just to sur- refuse to reveal their pay gap is Barclays Bank. vive. The rents are not the cost of providing the Or you can look at the National Audit Office of accommodation. They are what ‗the market will the Government, which now monitors pay ine- bear‘. They are as high as it is possible to rent quality in the public sector over time. Its reports the property out for. Rising inequalities always are not easy to find. stop rising at some point. I think it would be bet- The link to last year‘s reports is: https:// ter if they stopped rising sooner rather than lat- www.nao.org.uk/Collections/short-guides-to- er. departments/

The link to this year‘s reports is: https:// CB: What can be done on an individual and in- www.nao.org.uk/search/pi_area/short- stitutional level to not only stop the trend of ris- guides/type/report/ ing inequality sooner, but reverse it? Just as with Barclays in the private sector—in the public sector there is still the odd exception—figures are missing from the Department DD: At an individual level stopping the rising of Health. The minister for that Department is trend of inequality upwards is only easy if you Jeremy Hunt and he may not be very good at are an employer or trustee of an organisation, a his job. He recently told doctors they were not director, or an executive. The first thing you do very good at theirs. is immediately pay the living wage. Not the Chancellor of the Exchequer‘s proposed fake Here is a selection of very recently published living wage, but the one that is calculated every top-pay to median-pay ratios of a series of gov- year by academics at the University of Lough- ernment bodies take from those reports. The borough with the support of the Joseph Rown- first shows that the top to median inequality in tree Foundation and Nestle. Any organisation Her Majesty‘s Treasury is 4.7 to 1. Top pay is that cannot pay that is being very badly run and £182k to £185k. Median pay there is £38.9k. you should be ashamed of yourself. HMT are a low inequality public employer as the result: Should you not have control over wages, or be reliant on benefits or a pension, then you have 4.7:1 £182,000–185,000 : £38,919 HMT 2013- to lobby. Many organizations do this and they all 2014 need help. See: http://www.shareaction.org/ 5.6:1 £200,000–£205,000 : £30,640 Environ- justpay and http://www.cpag.org.uk/ among ment Agency (EA) others. I‘d suggest you help explain that people running firms and public sector bodies that are 6.3:1 £160,000–£165,000 : £29,185 Depart- so badly organized that they cannot afford this ment of the Environment, farming and rural pittance need to question their ability. If they Affairs (Defra) cannot do this then what else are they getting 6.33:1 £267,500 : £42,300 Cabinet Office wrong as managers? 6.6:1 £160,000–£165,000 : £25,644 Rural Pay- Secondly you need to concern yourself with ments Agency (RPA) why the gap is growing. One brilliant website is https://www.paycompare.org.uk/pay- 7.9:1 £197,500 : £25,261 DCLG: Planning In-

27 spectorate (Admin) CB: Thank you very much for your time and thoughtful responses, Professor Dorling. 8.7:1 £195,000–200,000 : £22,669 HMRC 2013 -2014

8.5:1 £200,000–205,000 : £23,805 HMRC 2014 -2015 Danny Dorling is the Halford Mackinder Pro- Note that the HMRC pay inequality ratio is fessor of Geography at the University of Ox- high—but it is falling. The tide has turned and ford. He grew up in Oxford and went to Uni- inequalities are now being exposed and some versity in Newcastle upon Tyne. He has are beginning to be reduced. As soon as you worked in Newcastle, Bristol, Leeds, Shef- ask—‗why do you need as much as that‘—you field and New Zealand. With a group of col- quickly realize that it was only because people leagues he helped create the web- were too embarrassed to ask that question that site www.worldmapper.org which shows change has been so slow coming. It is only a who has most and least in the world. Much very small number of very highly paid people of Danny’s work is available open access who allow the rot to continue. We need to com- (see www.dannydorling.org). His work con- pare what they do to people who are paid far cerns issues of housing, health, employ- less and do far more. When someone says, ‗But ment, education and poverty. His recent it‘s hard to get people like them‘, it may be time books include “Unequal health” and to laugh at them rather than be sympathetic at “Population Ten Billion” (both published in all. 2013); in 2014 “The Social Atlas of Eu- We need to compare the public sector body rati- rope” (with Dimitris Ballas and Ben Hennig), os above over time and to other organisations “All That Is Solid” and “Inequality and the and ask why they need to be so unequal. We 1%”, and in 2015: “Injustice: why social ine- need to shine in a light—compare the UK to quality still persists”. His next book is on similar affluent countries as well as to its past. It “Geography” (with Carl Lee) to be published is when we don‘t shine the light that the greedy in March 2016 and he is currently working on slowly and steadily accrue more and more. a new social atlas of the UK and a short book on politics and happiness. You save a huge amount of money when you curtail greed—many multiples of times the amount it costs to pay the living wage or decent Carrie Benjamin is a PhD candidate in the benefits. This is hardly surprising when people Department of Anthropology at SOAS and at the bottom of the society have to work for the Research & Administrative Assistant for years to earn what chief executives receive for the CMDS. Her research investigates how just a few days ‗work‘. Extreme inequality is urban renewal and gentrification are creating massively inefficient and massively costly, not new spaces of conflict and new opportuni- just grossly unfair. ties for community formation among resi- There is so much that can be done—have we dents in one of Paris’s last working-class lost the will to do it more and better and not let neighbourhoods. She is particularly interest- up? ed in the everyday contestations of memory and the use of public space that produce competing discourses of what it means to be and belong in a gentrifying city.

28 Spotlight on 2015 CMDS events

photograph by Siri Schwabe 29 CoHaB Summer School

The Diasporic Constructions of Home and Belonging (CoHaB) Summer School took place from 10-14 April at SOAS. Funded by the Marie Curie Initial Training Network, CoHaB is the product of three years of collaboration with six international institutions in Munster, Mumbai, Stockholm, Oxford, North- ampton, and the SOAS Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies. Scholars and students from the United States, Europe, and India came to London to participate in interactive panel discussions on home and belonging, and lead debates concerning gender, migration, and diaspora. Among our list of prestigious speakers and presenters were Columbia University Professor Saskia Sassen, Professor Nira Yuval-Davis, CoHaB Advisory Board member Professor Avtar Brah, and CoHaB Supervisor Pro- fessor Janet Wilson. We were also joined by a panel of activists working closely with migrants. Poetry, theatre, and comic art were represented throughout the Summer School, with each artist situating their works in the wider themes of home and belonging. Participants were also invited to join us in extra- curricular activities, connecting the themes of the CoHaB Network to London and SOAS, including a Black history walking tour, a theatre performance, and an evening reception with music from the SOAS Rebetiko Band.

30 “Sundarana: Marriage, Migration and Social Change among the Patidars of Central Gujarat”

This film is one of the outcomes of a £700,000 ESRC-funded research project, led by CMDS member Professor Edward Simpson, which ‗re-studied‘ the work of anthropologist David Pocock in the 1950s. Filmmaker Dr Alice Tilche introduced the film, which begins by searching for traces of Pocock and his work in the present-day village. Focussing on a young man‘s search for a bride, this documentary is about the village intertwining with international forms of migration, seen from the perspectives of those who ‗fail‘ and remain. It describes a village in which migration has become an economic and social ne- cessity and the prerequisite to be able to belong: to acquire, land, build a house and marry.

Public Lecture: The Geography of Elections, Inequality and Migration: 40 Years of Polarisation

Our public lecture continued our focus on the general elections and their contemporary relevance to migration. Professor Danny Dorling argued that the context of the 2015 general election was one of a country more divided than at any time since 1918 in terms of the geographical segregation of the UK vote. Often immigration is said to be the key issue, but that may well be a proxy for declining living standards and growing precarity. The lecture concluded by looking at a series of issues of worldwide interest, using interactive world maps to put the UK election in context.

“Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years 1984-1992”

On April 24th, the centre hosted a screening of Dr Dagmar Schultz‘s Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years 1984-1992. The film focuses on Audre Lorde‘s relation to the German Black Diaspora, her literary as well as political influence, and is a unique visual document about the times the author spent in Germa- ny. The film is a valuable historical document of German history, the development of the Afro-German movement and the origins of the anti-racist movement before and after German reunification.

31 Is there a refugee crisis in Europe? A roundtable discussion with SOAS academics and students

In the summer of 2015 the media and European politicians presented us with a growing picture of a ‗refugee crisis‘ in Europe. The more than half a million people reaching Europe through irregular means since the beginning of 2015 has prompted radically different interpretations of the nature and causes of this ‗crisis‘, divided European policy-makers over how to manage or solve this ‗crisis‘, and engendered strong grassroots responses to the ‗crisis‘ along both inclusionary and exclusionary lines. In this open forum, a panel of SOAS academics, students and activists gathered to discuss the nature of this ‗crisis‘, and debate whether or not classifying it as a ‗refugee crisis‘ is a useful political or con- ceptual manoeuvre. The panellists highlighted who has been rendered invisible or hyper-visible by different framings of the ‗crisis‘, and what is at stake socially, economically and politically when we try to decide who is worthy of protection and allowed to cross European borders.

CMDS Annual Lecture

For the 2015 Annual Lecture the CMDS hosted geographer Dr Kavita Datta (Queen Mary) for a lecture titled Re-centring diverse practices and geographies of transnational migrant giving. Drawing upon empirical research conducted with Somali migrant men and women in the East End of London, Dr Dat- ta documented the diverse economies of giving in migrant communities, paying particular attention to the motivations, mechanisms and geographies of charitable giving which underpin them. She critiqued the dominant western models of remittances which ignore other forms of philanthropy, and offered a nuanced understanding of migrant giving.

32 Designing Histories of Slavery in the Database Age

In October, Harvard Professor Vin- cent Brown spoke at SOAS about the difficult archival problems presented by multimedia presentations of the social history of slavery. He considered three graphic histories of slavery—a web-based animation of Voyages: The Trans- atlantic Slave Trade Database, a cartographic narrative of the Ja- maican slave revolt of 1760-61, and a web-based archive of en- slaved family lineages in Jamaica and Virginia—to illustrate how the archive of slavery is more than the records bequeathed to us by the past. The archive also includes the tools we use to explore it, the vi- sion that allows us to see its traces, and the design decisions that communicate our sense of history‘s possibilities.

Lampedusa: Caught between shipwreck and tourism

In November 2015 the CMDS hosted a workshop organised by Dr Anna Arnone. The workshop brought together migration and tourism scholars to discuss how Lampedusa's inhabitants have found themselves negotiating not only the constant tragedy taking place in their seas, but also the ensuing impact on their livelihood—‗leisure‘—tourism, as a result of recent events. Lampedusa has seen an increase in militarisation in the last decade and local people are vigorously contesting this process as both intrusive and counterproductive for their fishing and tourist economy. Papers explored Lampedu- sa's on-going social change, with a view to drawing a new cartography of inclusion of the spaces and actors that are contributing to Lampedusa's complex current identity.

Partnerships with external organisations

photograph by Siri Schwabe 34 mali culture' Prof Cawo Abdi (Dept of Sociology Kayd Somali Arts at University of Minnesota), who has recently published a book on Somali diaspora groups in and Culture South Africa, USA and UAE, talked about the diversity of Somali society, exploring multiple dimensions, contradicting common assumption of Somali homogeneity. She also highlighted the Somali Week 2015 shifts in consciousness of younger and diasporic generations which give hope of a more toler- ant future.

On 26 October 2015 Somali Week Festival Dr Rasheed Farrah talked about minority rights, came to SOAS! As part of an action-packed or the lack thereof, in Somaliland. His research week of events celebrating Somali arts and cul- with boys from minority groups in Hargeisa ture, CMDS hosted a two-part panel exploring demonstrated multiple barriers to education. He issues of diversity, rights and politics of reviewed and debunked common assumptions knowledge - and the role of diasporas in these about minority groups, and called for more pro- processes. We enjoyed hearing from a set of active policy to protect their rights. hugely insightful speakers, and with the lecture The panel was chaired by Zahra Jibril, a devel- theatre packed out, there was lively discus- opment analyst and Managing Director of Aca- sion. There was sign language interpreters pre- cia Enterprises. sent for deaf participants, helping them to make important interventions in discussion. The second panel, 'Somali Studies at a Cross- roads' addressed issues of knowledge produc- In the first panel, 'Dealing with Diversity in So-

photograph by Kayd Somali Arts & Culture 35 photograph by Kayd Somali Arts & Culture tion. Dr Siham Riyale (SOAS PhD alumna) participants in the ensuing discussion consid- shared her insights from conducting research on ered what the future might hold for Somali stud- women's political participation and other issues ies, and how knowledge production can be dias a diasporic and transnational researcher. versified and strengthened by promoting the She asked who do scholars (Somali and non) contributions of Somali scholars, activists and write for, suggesting that research is too often communities. targeted to people outside the Somali regions. The panel was chaired by Mohammed Artan Safia Aidid (PhD candidate in History at Harvard Founder and CEO of Nuurmedia Productions University) talked about her experiences and and Looh Press. insights resulting from initiating a vigorous de- The event was supported financially by SOAS bate in social media about the marginalization of Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies, and Somali scholars and activists in knowledge pro- co-funded by UCL Development Planning Unit. duction in Somali studies (the ‗Cadaan Stud- ies‘/‗white studies‘ debate). Both speakers and

36 You do not respect what you cannot see PAN Arts: Fortune Once upon a time Theatre I was free from your burdens Your heavy buildings Your endless marches The CMDS has continued to partner with PAN Once upon a time Arts and Fortune Theatre throughout the last In your London, Londinium year. Pan is an intercultural arts organisation dedicated to the exploration of cultural diversity There were Mammoths and Monkeys through the arts and how such work can inspire Lions and Hippos and implement social change. This is achieved There was happiness, there was peace through workshops and performances with Those were the times, when I was at ease young people who are marginalised and at risk of social exclusion. Pan helps its participants find a voice through drama, dance, music, writ- Today I live on, with scars on my face ing and film. This year, we are pleased to fea- My rivers are filled up, with bricks and clay ture a poem by Sheyda O‘Rang. You pollute my rivers, you bury your waste

What you want to discard, is homed in my earth Londinium You have buried my fleet Under your rocks By Sheyda O’Rang Under your tall buildings

Under your footpaths I am London the land you no longer see My rivers are buried Look under your feet and you will see But they are not dead history through me They are still flowing, under the earth Layers of eras buried deep within me They are muffled by sewers I preserve the truth of your identity They are gaged by your pipes From Romans to Vikings They are still flowing, under your footpaths Saxons to Hanoverians You walk on without knowing From Tudors to Elizabethans The world that you are missing Black Death and World Wars It is not that you cannot see You cannot see what is within me It is that you choose not to see Wells and rivers One thing I know for sure Gods and heroes No matter how much you forget Treasures from past centuries When you look beneath your feet I keep hold of cultures that you have long lost I will always be there I hear the languages that you no longer speak

I do not understand your ignorance towards me 37 Spotlight on our members

photograph by Siri Schwabe

38 CMDS Member Updates

Fiona Adamson

Presentations

Fiona Adamson (Politics) delivered the keynote address ‗Globalizing Politics: Migra- tion, Diaspora and Institutional Change‘ at the conference ‗Migration and Institution- al Change‘ at Witten/Herdecke University in Germany.

Awards

She was awarded the 2015 Inaugural Best Paper Prize of the Council for European Studies Immigra- tion Research Network for her paper ‗Sending States and the Making of Intra-Diasporic Politics: Tur- key and Its Diaspora(s) in Europe‘.

Grants & Projects

She was also the recipient of a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship for the project ‗Conflicts Be- yond Borders: Transnational Identities, Belonging and Security.‘

John R. Campbell

Publications

2014 Nationalism, Law and Statelessness: Grand Illusions in the Horn of Africa. Ab- bingdon: Routeldge.

William G. Clarence-Smith

Publications

Freitag, Ulrike, & Clarence-Smith, William G. eds., al-Shatât al Hadramî: tujjâr, ‗ulamâ‘, wa rijâl dawlah Hadârim fi al-Muhît al-Hindî, 1750-1960m, Tarim (Hadhramaut): Tarîm lil-Dirâsât wa al-Nashr, 2015, 415 pp.

‗Middle Eastern states and the Philippines under early American rule, 1898-1919,‘ in A. C. S. Peacock and Annabel Teh Gallop, eds., From Anatolia to Aceh: Ottomans, Turks and Southeast Asia, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015, pp. 199-219.

Conference papers

‗Hadhrami Arab migrants in the colonial Philippines,‘ Hadhrami Research Centre inaugural conference ‗Rediscovering Hadhramaut,‘ SOAS, University of London, 7 March 2015

39 ‗Overview and concluding remarks on the Hadhrami diaspora‘, LUCIS Symposium, ‗Islam and the Ha- drami diaspora in the eastern and western Indian Ocean,‘ Leiden University, 16 December 2014.

‗Jerusalem and the ―Syrian‖ diaspora in the Philippines, 1860s to 1950s,‘ Conference, ‗Remembering Jerusalem: imagination, memory, and the city,‘ King‘s College London, 6-7 November 2014.

Gabriella Elgenius

Grants & Projects

Gabriella conducted research on the following projects during academic year 2014/2015 (a process that continues during 2015/2016). These externally funded projects explore – in various ways - different constellations and imaginations of ‗homeland‘, nation-building, the politics of identity, the bonding and bridging of social capital, community-building and volunteering:

To what extent does homeland matter? Sikh and Polish communities and bonding of social capital. This project was originally funded by the British Academy and John Fell at Oxford University and has continued into a specific project on the Polish Diaspora

Polish Civil Society (funded by Swedish Research Council, PI Kerstin Jacobsson, Gothenburg).

Hard Times and Communities. This project assessed the reality of the recession for those groups dis- proportionately affected including ethnic minorities, disabled, young men, single mothers etc. (PI An- thony Heath, Manchester and Oxford, in collaboration with Tom Clark, the Guardian).

Publications

Elgenius. ‘On Diaspora and the Bonding of Social Capital; the case of the Polish Diaspora in the UK‘. (chapter in process)

Jacobsson & Korolczuk, eds,. The Challenge of Collective Action: New Perspectives on Civil Society and Social Activism in Contemporary Poland (in preparation)

Clark (with Heath) Hard Times: The Divisive Toll of the Economic Slump. Yale University Press (2014) (Qualitative research by G. Elgenius)

Clark & Elgenius. Benefits crackdown leads to divide and rule within poor communities‘. Guardian Feature 30 April. (2014)

Invitations & Conferences

Roundtable Panel organised by Guardian Big Ideas & The British Academy. ‗The Social Impact of Im- migration‘. The Guardian at the Party Conferences in Birmingham 2014. Followed by a feature in the Guardian ‗How will 'super diversity' affect the future of British politics?‘

Politicising Apology and Performing Egalitarianism: the repatriation of cultural (national) heritage and human remains between the ‗Nordic‘ countries. CRESC - Centre for Research on Socio-cultural Change – Power, Culture and Social Framing, University of Manchester.

40 Laura Hammond

Presentations

December 2015: talk given at a conference on Opportunities & Challenges of Dias- pora Engagement, hosted by DiaGram, a consortium made up of Comic Relief (UK), Danish Refugee Council (DK), Development Fund (NO), Forum Syd (SE), GIZ (GE).

September 2015: talk at a meeting hosted by AFFORD-UK and the EU-UK office on at a policy seminar on 'Europe and Africa Post 2015 Migration, Diaspora and Development: How to Build on Best Practice in Development from the African Diaspora.'

Publications

Laura Hammond also wrote an article for Newsweek titled 'Valletta Summit: Aid for Africa is not the Solution to the Refugee Crisis.'

Tania Kaiser

Publications

'‘Risk and Social Transformation: Gender and forced migration' in Gender and War, Jennifer Pederson, Julia Welland, Linda Steiner and Simona Sharoni (eds.) (forthcoming spring 2016)

Conference papers

'Children, families and resettlement: A durable solution for all?' 3rd International Conference of the In- ternational Childhood and Youth Research Network—Theory and Method in Child & Youth Research. European University of Cyprus, 2015.

Anna Lindley

Grants

This year I am researching immigration-related activism, exploring how people mo- bilise against the 'hostile environment' the government aims to promote. Currently I am focusing on volunteering and activism around immigration detention—how people support people in held in immigration detention and push for policy change. Combining qualitative and online survey research, the study explores what motivates people to get involved; ways of organizing and campaigning; and what sorts of alternative politics of migration emerge. This research is funded by the British Academy / Leverhulme Trust‘s Small Grants scheme. For more information, see: Building Bridges: Understanding Voluntary Sector Engagements with Immigration Detention.

41 There are two short blogs related to this research: 'Taking on the hostile environment' as part of the Detention Forum's 'Unlocking Detention Tour', and 'Refugees Welcome and Beyond' for the London International Development Centre Blog.

Edward Simpson

Grants

Edward Simpson has been awarded a €2 million European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant for a five-year research project titled Roads and the politics of thought: Ethnographic approaches to infrastructure development in South Asia. As the Principal Investigator, he will work with a team which includes Dr Laura Jeffery and Dr Kanchana N. Ruwanpura at the University of Edinburgh, an award-winning collective of contemporary artists, CAMP, who are based in Mumbai, and at least three post-doctoral positions at SOAS.

Gerasimos Tsourapas

Grants

Gerasimos was awarded an International Studies Association venture research workshop grant ($10,310).The workshop is titled ―Unpacking the Sending States: Regimes, Institutions, and Non-state Actors in Emigration and Diaspora Politics.‖ It will gather fifteen scholars from prestigious universities in Europe and the US to discuss how regimes, institutions and non-state actors shape sending states‘ extraterritorial engagement with migrant populations abroad. The workshop will take place at the ISA convention in Atlanta in March 2016, and a small follow-up workshop will be conducted at Warwick University in the fall of 2016. Results will be further disseminated through the London Migration Research Group, and edited special journal issues are envisaged as a result of this workshop.

photograph by Edward Simpson 42 PhD Student Research

A. Ebru Akcasu The Non-Ottomans of Constantinople: Exiles and Expatriates, 1876-1909

Siba Aldabbagh Word and Image in Visual Art and Poetry from the Arab World

Jinan Bastaki Displaced and Unrecognized: The Implications of Citizenship on the Palestinian Right of Return

Carrie Benjamin ‗There Goes the Neighbourhood‘: Urban Renewal, Belonging and Working-Class Paris

Špela Drnovšek Zorko Elsewhere as elsewhen: Intergenerational diasporic narratives after Yu- goslavia

Diana Felix Da Costa The politics of Murle identity, experiences of violence and of the State in Boma, South Sudan.

Veronica Ferreri Creating a Syrian Subject, perceiving the Syrian State. Displacement, violence and fantasy of the state among Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

Matt Fish Contested Spaces in the Capital: Squatting, Place and Subjectivity

Lamya Hussain Dunam after Dunam: Transitions in Farming across the Jordan Valley

Lennon Chido Mhishi Songs of Migration: Experiences of Music, Place Making and Identity Ne- gotiation amongst Zimbabwean Migrants in London

Marco Mogiani The European and national policies on migration and asylum and their impact on the physiognomy of the port of entries and on the migration patterns in the Greek-Turkish border in the last twenty years.

Nydia A. Swaby Becoming Black: gender and the meanings of blackness in contemporary Britain

Gerasimos Tsourapas Trading People, Consolidating Power: Emigration & Authoritarianism in Modern Egypt

Thomas van der Molen Navigating Sovereignties: Social Navigation among Undocumented Ti- betans in Nepal and Switzerland

Mathilde Zederman The Tunisian Diasporic Political Space in France (1960s - present)

43 Keith Howard Music CMDS Members Bruce Ingham Linguistics Fiona Adamson Politics & International Studies Tania Kaiser Development Studies Nadje Al-Ali Gender Studies Laleh Khalili Politics & International Studies Anna Arnone Research Associate Karima Laachir Languages & Cultures of Near Diamond Ashiagbor School of Law & Middle East Mashood Baderin School of Law Kevin Latham Anthropology & Sociology Jing Bian Financial and Management Studies Naomi Leite Anthropology & Sociology Richard Black Pro-Director of Research & En- Anna Lindley Development Studies terprise Friederike Lüpke Linguistics Vladimir I Braginsky South East Asia Dolores P Martinez Anthropology & Sociology Crispin Branfoot Art & Archaeology Dina Matar Media Studies Gabriele vom Bruck Anthropology & Sociology Fran Meissner Research Associate John R Campbell Anthropology & Sociology Werner Menski School of Law William Gervase Clarence-Smith History Nima Mina Languages & Cultures of Near & Anna Contadini Art & Archaeology Middle East Christopher Cramer Development Studies Peter Muchlinski School of Law Bhavna Davé Politics & International Studies Scott Newton School of Law Christopher Davis Anthropology & Sociology Paolo Novak Development Studies Catriona Drew School of Law Caroline Osella Anthropology & Sociology Špela Drnovšek Zorko Anthropology & Sociol- John Parker History ogy Parvathi Raman Anthropology & Sociology Lindiwe Dovey Languages & Cultures of Africa Kostas Retsikas Anthropology & Sociology Lucy Durán Music Marie Rodet History Rachel Dwyer Languages & Cultures of South Elaheh Rostami-Povey Media & Film Studies Asia Ruba Salih Gender Studies Kai Easton Languages & Cultures of Africa Edward Simpson Anthropology & Sociology Gabriella Elgenius IFCELS Gurharpal Singh Arts & Humanities Ed Emery Research Associate Subir Sinha Development Studies Rossella Ferrari Languages & Cultures of Chi- Stefan Sperl Languages & Cultures of Near & na & Inner Asia Middle East Ben Fine Economics Annabelle Sreberny Media & Film Studies Chege Githiora Languages & Cultures of Africa Kristin Surak Politics & International Studies Paul Gifford Religions & Philosophies Nydia A. Swaby Gender Studies Jonathan Goodhand Development Studies Carol G. S. Tan School of Law Charles Gore Art & Archaeology Tania Tribe Art & Archaeology Ben Groom Economics Gerasimos Tsourapas Politics Laura Hammond Development Studies Yair Wallach Languages & Cultures of Near & Adam Hanieh Development Studies Middle East Jane Harrigan Economics Ilana Webster-Kogen Music Hermione Harris Research Associate Lynn Welchman School of Law Rachel Harris Music Amina Yaqin Languages & Cultures of South Catherine Hezser Religions & Philosophies Asia Almut Hintze Religions & Philosophies Cosimo Zene Religions & Philosophies