Policing Bodies in Transit: Borders, Detention and Migrant Narratives Along the Balkan Route

Abstract

In summer 2016, I travelled along the Balkan route conducting semi-structured interviews with local organizations (n=24) and refugees (n=16) in an effort to explore the consequences of stasis within mobility. Through hearing about the personal impacts of closed borders, marginalization and deportations I realized that the policies in place to aid refugees instead contributed to a larger system of confinement and detention. In this thesis I explore the expansion of the carceral state through the criminalization of asylum seekers and the consequent detention and deportation they face. I look at the role of surveillance technology and physical barriers (i.e. fences) as potential inhibitors to accessing asylum. I theorize how EU asylum policy facilitates this process and incorporate narratives from asylum seekers along the Balkan route to humanize this analysis.