Metropolitics

The Emergence of Transnational Queer Organizing Across a Hardening US–Canada Border

Elizabeth Hessek — 2025-09-30T05:00:00Z

LGTBQ+ refugees in the United States not only face the violence of the nation's immigration policy but are also constrained by international agreements that limit Canada's ability to offer refugee status to them. Elizabeth Hessek describes how these challenges have created opportunities for transnational networks to support queer refugees wherever they may be.
As migration control has surfaced as a barometer of national sovereignty in public debate, recent migration scholarship has rejected

- From the Field / LGBTQ+, queer, community organizing, refugees, United States, Canada, North America, borders, immigration, immigration policy, networks

Arrests of People Smugglers in Niger: A Criminalization of Mutual-Aid Practices in Migration Situations

Alizée Dauchy & translated by Oliver Waine — 2022-07-08T05:00:00Z

From the point of view of the Northern states, international migration from the South now has its designated leaders, the networks of "smugglers", which should be dismantled. Based on an ethnographic survey conducted in Niger, the author shows the lability of this role and the perverse effects of a blind repression of mutual aid.
Long ignored by European migration policies, Niger has emerged in official discourse as a transit country for West African populations heading for Europe since 2015

- From the Field / Niger, migrants, migration, criminalization of migration, borders, law, migration crisis, Global South, Africa

At the Borders of Europe

Elsa Tyszler & translated by Oliver Waine — 2022-05-13T05:00:00Z

Against the backdrop of the deaths of 27 exiled people, who drowned in the English Channel while trying to reach the United Kingdom in November 2021, Camille Schmoll's book sheds light on the migration tragedy and the responsibility of states and the European Union when it comes the fate of migrant women on the margins of Europe.
Geographer Camille Schmoll conducted her research during a decade (2010-2020) in which the sea became a border-graveyard for Europe's unwanted migrants. Contrary to

- Reviews / migration crisis, migrants, reception, feminism, borders, migration

Lawyers and Borders: Using Legal Recourse to Oppose State Discretion?

Annalisa Lendaro & translated by Oliver Waine — 2022-05-06T05:00:00Z

In the autumn of 2020, the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais département, in northern France, prohibited associations not mandated by the state from distributing food aid to migrants on the street. While opponents of this decision have taken their case to the administrative courts, Annalisa Lendaro shows the central role of lawyers in challenging migration policies.
In a context of reinforced controls at the French–Italian border for the last 10 years, a small group of lawyers has specialized

- From the Field / migrants, law, Italy, borders, migration, migration crisis, criminalization of migration

Refugee Encampment on Europe's Borders

Marie Bassi & translated by Oliver Waine — 2022-02-04T06:00:00Z

Much media attention on the issue of migration is focused on attempts to cross the Mediterranean Sea and the often dramatic consequences that result. This article sheds light on the trajectories of exiled individuals living in “reception centers” in the south of Italy, which have become an economic sector in their own right.
In Italy, the migration issue has undergone a rapid politicization process since the transformation of the central Mediterranean into one of the main routes to reach the

- From the Field / Italy, migrants, Europe, migration, borders, law, reception

The Asylum Story: Narrative Capital and International Protection

Emily Reid — 2021-02-02T06:00:00Z

Obtaining international protection relies upon an ability to successfully navigate the host country's asylum regime. In France, the récit de vie, or asylum story, is critical to this process. An asylum seeker must craft their story with the cultural expectations of the assessor in mind. The shaping of the asylum story can be seen as an act of political protest.
Names and identifying details have been altered to protect the privacy of individuals' stories.
The role of the asylum story within

- From the Field / asylum, migrants, migration, borders, France, immigration, immigration control, Europe

From Transit to Settlement. A Mexican Border Town's Transition from a Transit Space to a Waiting Territory

Isabel Gil-Everaert — 2020-03-03T06:00:00Z

Tanapan, a border town in southern Mexico has long been a point of passage for Central American migrants bound for the United States. Since 2014, new restrictions have gradually changed it into a waiting territory. How was it transformed into a new involuntary destination?
In early July 2016, Lucy invited me for lunch at her house. I had met her the previous summer, while she was staying at La Palma, a migrant shelter located in Tanapan, a small town in southern Mexico where I conducted

- From the Field / Mexico, borders, United States, migrants, migration, shelter, waiting, transit space, territory, Guatemala

Made in China, Sold in West Africa

Anne Bouhali & Nora Mareï & Mamadou Dimé & translated by Oliver Waine — 2019-05-31T05:00:00Z

From a small border post between Senegal and Mauritania, Anne Bouahli, Nora Mareï and Mamadou Dimé follow the journey of goods from Europe and China, as well as locally produced merchandise, with a view to examining and analyzing the different forms that globalization is taking in these little-studied areas.
Along the Tangier–Nouakchott–Dakar coastal corridor, the Rosso crossing on the Senegal River is both a border and a discontinuity in terms of transit. As the missing link in the

- From the Field / commerce, borders, mobility, globalization, Africa, West Africa, China, Morocco, Mauritania, Global South, Senegal

Looking Inward, Across the Border

Harel Shapira — 2016-04-19T05:00:00Z

In the constellation of anti-immigrant politics in the United States, groups like the Minutemen, civilians who patrol the border with military gear, stand out for taking matters into their own hands. Harel Shapira explains that these militiamen are motivated not just by reflexive right-wing anti-immigrant ideology, but also by a nostalgia for their own lost worlds of work and meaning forged in military careers.
Presidential candidate Donald Trump has made the construction of a high border

- From the Field / immigration, United States, work, migration, borders, community, Minutemen, patrol, military, nostalgia, Mexico, immigration control, Featured

Childhood Spent Waiting at the Gate

Adeline Perrot & translated by Oliver Waine — 2016-04-01T05:00:00Z

The recent opening of a holding area for “unaccompanied foreign minors” at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport reflects a change in French policy regarding the detention of children at border entry points. Adeline Perrot shows that, in reality, providing care for young people in confinement straddles a fine line between protecting minors in danger and policing migratory movements.
---- Series: Children in the City In July 2011, a closed area for the detention of unaccompanied foreign minors was

- From the Field / architecture, France, Île-de-France, Paris region, Paris, police, children, law, migration, borders, detention centres, airport, hospitality, education, childhood in danger, migratory policy, NGOs, social work