Informal refugee spatialities and urban interstices along the Balkan Route (2): Trieste endgame

This paper is the result of fieldwork that has been conducted over eight years (2015-2023) along the so-called refugee “Balkan Route” and it aims to discuss the development, the commonalities and the differences that have characterized two cities (Belgrade and Trieste) faced with the implications of the refugee related humanitarian crisis that, since the summer of 2015, has challenged all European immigration policies and put a strain on many local reception systems. For editorial reasons, our research, originally conceived and developed as a single project, is presented in two distinct articles which are conceptually and analytically part of the same, broader, essay: therefore, in the first article entitled Spazi informali e interstizi urbani lungo la Rotta Balcanica (1): il refugee hub di Belgrado (published in the previous issue of this journal) we have discussed the positioning of the project compared to the existing literature, the methodology and the case of Belgrade; here we discuss instead the case of Trieste, while in the conclusion we present the general findings of the overall project. More specifically, in the present article we examine the ways in which refugees and asylum seekers have used, re-signified and appropriated some key urban areas in Trieste, contributing to the emergence of a refugee hub that is the result, at the same time, of the interventions of the authorities and of the humanitarian organizations, of ever-changing border policies as well as of the spatial tactics of the people on the move along this informal migration corridor.

Keywords: ; Trieste, refugee hub, informal urban geographies, Balkan Route.

Dragan Umek, Claudio Minca, Spazi informali e interstizi urbani lungo la Rotta Balcanica (2): Trieste endgame in "RIVISTA GEOGRAFICA ITALIANA" 2/2024, pp 45-62, DOI: 10.3280/rgioa2-2024oa17808