Subjectivity en transit. (In) the mobility of refugees in Europe between control systems and daily practices of border crossing

The article highlights the complexity of the forced migration phenomenon and the way through which the institutions attempt to manage and control it in Europe. The author sheds light on the power relations and the frictions that emerge from the interaction between the system of migration control and the migrant subjects' attempt to autonomously move. The concept of subjectivity is here applied in order to grasp the effect of the power relations and the practices of self formation enacted by subjects within the structural constrains in which they move. These dynamics will be highlighted by an ethnographic case-study about the "secondary movements" of a group of forced migrants that arrived in Italy in 2011 and moved later to Germany in order to find better life conditions, despite the restriction of their mobilities through the Schengen Agreement and Dublin Convention. The migrant subjects experience thus a transit condition, which is lengthened in time and assumes a spacial, temporal and juridical dimension - categories in transit from the "illegal" condition to the "legal" one and vice versa. Hence the transit condition becomes integral part of the migratory experience and not just a phase of transition. Thus, subjectivities in movement emerge, which are characterized by transit temporalities that confront themselves with the European, national and local institutions. The frictions which emerge from these interaction shed light on Europe as a battleground, where the negotiating practices between migrant subjects, institutional actors and supporters contribute to the redefinition of the territorial, juridical and political borders.

Keywords: Transits - borders - forced migration - subjectivities - temporalities - secondary movements

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Chiara Marchetti, Michele Manocchi, Introduzione. Rifugiati in transito attraverso l’Europa in "MONDI MIGRANTI" 1/2016, pp 21-38, DOI: 10.3280/MM2016-001002