Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: The Global Transformation of Borders and Mobility
- Section I Experiencing Borders in South Asia
- 1 Spaces of Refusal: Rethinking Sovereign Power and Resistance at the Border
- 2 Border Layers: Formal and Informal Markets Along the India-Bangladesh Border
- 3 Experiencing the Border: The Lushai People and Transnational Space
- Section II Mobility in and Beyond South Asia
- 4 Of Insiders, Outsiders, and Infiltrators: The Politics of Citizenship and Inclusion in Contemporary South Asia
- 5 Renegotiating Boundaries: Exploring the Lives of Undocumented Bangladeshi Women Workers in India
- 6 ‘The Immoral Traffic in Women’: Regulating Indian Emigration to the Persian Gulf
- 7 The Journey to Europe: A Young Afghan’s Experience on the Migrant Route
- 8 Hardening Regional Borders: Changes in Mobility from South Asia to the European Union
- Section III Representations of Borders and Mobility in Diaspora
- 9 The Borders of Integration: Paperwork between Bangladesh and Belgium
- 10 Disordering History and Collective Memory in Gunvantrai Acharya’s Dariyalal 229
- 11 Fragmented Lives: Locating ‘Home’ in the Poems of Sudesh Mishra
- Conclusion
- Index
8 - Hardening Regional Borders: Changes in Mobility from South Asia to the European Union
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 December 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: The Global Transformation of Borders and Mobility
- Section I Experiencing Borders in South Asia
- 1 Spaces of Refusal: Rethinking Sovereign Power and Resistance at the Border
- 2 Border Layers: Formal and Informal Markets Along the India-Bangladesh Border
- 3 Experiencing the Border: The Lushai People and Transnational Space
- Section II Mobility in and Beyond South Asia
- 4 Of Insiders, Outsiders, and Infiltrators: The Politics of Citizenship and Inclusion in Contemporary South Asia
- 5 Renegotiating Boundaries: Exploring the Lives of Undocumented Bangladeshi Women Workers in India
- 6 ‘The Immoral Traffic in Women’: Regulating Indian Emigration to the Persian Gulf
- 7 The Journey to Europe: A Young Afghan’s Experience on the Migrant Route
- 8 Hardening Regional Borders: Changes in Mobility from South Asia to the European Union
- Section III Representations of Borders and Mobility in Diaspora
- 9 The Borders of Integration: Paperwork between Bangladesh and Belgium
- 10 Disordering History and Collective Memory in Gunvantrai Acharya’s Dariyalal 229
- 11 Fragmented Lives: Locating ‘Home’ in the Poems of Sudesh Mishra
- Conclusion
- Index
Summary
Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of how European Union states on the migrant route deal with migrants from South Asia. The militarization, securitization, and hardening of borders in Europe influenced all types of migration and changed the perception of migrants from many different regions of the world. The return of physical barriers and border controls created new geopolitical patterns of movement. The chapter analyses how and to what extent these processes have affected migrations within Europe and from South Asia to Europe. The aim is to show both quantitative and qualitative changes by analysing the trends and presenting an overview of migration patterns, problems, and challenges from the perspective of migrant rights, chances, and possibilities.
Keywords: geopolitics of migration, European migration crisis, securitization of borders, migration patterns
Introduction
In 2016, the refugee crisis demonstrated new trends that highlighted crucial issues for future migration processes in Europe. My first encounter with the crisis itself was in 2015, when I was at a conference in Budapest, Hungary. Rumours about refugees from South Asia and Syria arriving in the Budapest city centre and officials closing the railway stations circulated among the conference participants and guests. Soon the story was confirmed, when refugees began to march towards Germany over the Erszebet Bridge because of the closed railways and the lack of organized transport to their destination (Hardman 2015). A few days later, Hungary closed its borders and erected razor wire barriers on its borders with Serbia and Croatia. With the way from Serbia to Germany through Hungary closed, the main flow of people was redirected towards my home country, Croatia. The first transit camp was built in Opatovac, next to the Šid-Tovarnik border crossing between Serbia and Croatia. Although there was a lot of information about them in the Croatian media, the refugees themselves were not visible in other parts of Croatia. Later, when a new transit camp was built next to Slavonski Brod due to the weather conditions and inability to house more people in the existing camps, the possibility of meeting or even seeing a refugee was limited to officials and volunteers in the camp. There were many different stories in both the Croatian and world media about the living conditions and human rights of the refugees in the camps along the Balkan route.
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- Borders and Mobility in South Asia and Beyond , pp. 187 - 204Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2018
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