Contentious subjects : spatial and relational perspectives on forced migrant mobilizations in Berlin and Paris

Political mobilizations by ‘forced migrants’ for rights and recognition have proliferated worldwide in the last two decades. Yet, these contentious practices have rarely received widespread public attention. They contrast with a dominant portrayal of marginalized migrants as either passive, needy and ideally grateful objects of government or civil society humanitarianism or stigmatized outsiders and intruders in a national order. Also the academic reflection on the issue has started only relatively recently, particularly in critical migration and citizenship studies, and far less so in social movement studies. According to dominant movement theories, (forced) migrants are unlikely subjects of mobilization due to legal obstacles (including ‘deportability’), limited economic and social capital and closed political and discursive opportunities. Against this background, my thesis explores diverse processes of political mobilization by forced migrants with a view to provide theoretical refinements and empirical complements to the body of literature in social movement studies. Given the volatile and fragmented nature of forced migrant mobilizations, the research draws from recent innovations in contentious politics, highlighting ‘micro-interactions’ in specific arenas, as well the concrete spatial underpinnings of such practices. The key guiding interest evolves around the question of how protest by forced migrants emerges and unfolds through interactions among diverse players in specific arenas. I analyse the making and unmaking of social ties by forced migrants, as well as the spaces they enact and embody in processes of mobilization. With a view to integrate knowledge obtained in other disciplines, the research is furthemore informed by critical migration studies, particularly the notions of ‘acts of citizenship’ under precarious conditions in exclusive migration regimes. Designed in the tradition of ‘political ethnography’, the project both homes in on specific interactions in deleneated arenas and adds a comparative element by contrasting various arenas. The project investigates four protest arenas in two European capitals, Berlin and Paris. It therefore scrutinizes and contrasts processes of mobilization in two distinct legal, relational and spatial contexts. In adding a diachronic comparison in each location, the research aims at the tentative identification of relational and spatial patterns in forced migrant mobilizations. The research shows how marginalized actors temporarily overcome structural obstacles through interactions with more powerful actors and by appropriating spaces with avantageous relational qualities. Moreover, the research documents the fragility of ties that are made and unmade both among forced migrants and with pro-beneficiaries in concrete contentious interactions.