Absract:As undocumented migration becomes more difficult, migrants' journeys become longer and more fragmented. This is a response to new spatialities of migration control which are continually reconfigured in an effort to eliminate clandestine movement. In the trans-Saharan region, this pattern of fragmented journeys also arises from a network of transnational social organisations that depend upon newly available technologies. Migrants' social networks provide both the means and the motivation for continued movement, even as destinations become more elusive. This paper investigates the imbalanced conflict between the social organisation of Sahara transit migrants and the developing spatial logic of control. It is based on recent research with undocumented migrants in Morocco.

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This paper considers the ways in which the dynamic nature of transit migration may be captured in categories that provide a basis for developing our understanding of the phenomenon but do not attempt to artificially pin it down. The first section re‐examines common ways of categorising migrants and the second turns to existing research and activism around subjects of immigration in North Africa. The final section applies the common categorisations of the first section with the developing research considered in the second to examine the data that is available to enhance our understanding and possibilities of developing categorisations of transit migration. The conclusion sets out ways of advancing the research agenda on transit migration. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This article introduces the subject of this special issue and presents the papers that follow. It traces the origins of the label ‘transit migration’ to discussions of what was called the ‘new migration’ in the early 1990s. These migrations related to the particular geopolitical context at the end of the Cold War. Though they established the pre‐emptive rationale whereby concern is focused as much on potential migration as on actual movement, there have been four substantial changes since then. As the geopolitical context has changed, so has the geographies of migration, with a general shift of attention from east‐west to south‐north; the technological supports of migration have improved, allowing migrants easier, cheaper access to different routes; the categories of migrant have proliferated and finally similar movements may be observed all over the world though only those in the vicinity of Europe are labelled as ‘transit’. This leads us to a critical stance around the term ‘transit’ that is common to all papers in this special issue. Nevertheless, despite the problematic term, there is something worthy of attention amongst these new developments around the fringes of Europe. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper examines the diversity of destinations of asylum-seekers in Europe, focusing on the particular situation of asylum-seekers who claim asylum in countries with no significant co-national population, such as the growing Algerian community in the UK. This movement challenges existing social network approaches to migration. It is clear that many Algerians have family links in France and that the majority continue to travel there, so there can be no suggestion that social networks are no longer relevant, or do not apply to refugee movement. However, it is apparent that most Algerians coming to Britain also have family links to France but that strict migration controls reduce the possibility of mobilising the social capital inherent in these social networks. I conclude therefore that, as a result of migration restrictions, undocumented migrants use social networks differently, focusing on weaker ties rather than strong family networks. Political and economic factors also influence location decisions, especially in the absence of strong social imperatives towards particular locations.

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