Camouflaging borders: relocation, neglect and disciplines of emplacement in Portugal

Fragmented citizenship: contemporary infrastructures of mobility containment along two migratory routes

“…According to the law in force at the time of writing, asylum interviews should be scheduled within 18 months from the filing of the asylum application. Yet, several asylum seekers state they find themselves in the same condition as Alí, having waited for their interviews for much longer (see also Vacchiano 2019). 8.…”

Fragmented citizenship: contemporary infrastructures of mobility containment along two migratory routes

“…Although he was finally enabled to reach Germany, his administrative status as an illegalized alien had already been decreed, preventing him to access any form of state protection within the EU. When Ali realised that legal residence was beyond reach in Germany, he opted to try for Portugal, a place referred to by acquaintances as 'a good country for refugees' (for a discussion on the marketing of Portugal as 'a welcoming country for asylum seekers', see Vacchiano 2019). With this aim in mind, in May 2016, he took a bus from Germany to Portugal, together with his young relative Asad with whom he had reunited in Austria.…”

“…Such stories serve to highlight both the transnational nature of the apparatus of differential inclusion -which displays a strong EU-wide component and increasingly relies on externalisation -and the specific features it acquires in accordance with the organisation of national and regional infrastructures of containment, in sending, transit and receiving countries. Among them, as the cases we discuss are set to show, we certainly include various forms of humanitarian protection, which have a role in influencing people's life itineraries (see Vacchiano 2019). For the Portuguese case, one of our interlocutors, who narrated his journey through the border and its multiple infrastructures, also took part in the co-writing of this paper.…”