Urgent Invite - Transitory Lives: An Anthropological Research of the Migration Crisis in the Mediterranean.

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The ongoing migration crisis in the Mediterranean affects all European Countries and is one of the major challenges in European policy making. According to the UN Refugee Agency, 103,000 boat migrants crossed the Mediterranean in the first six months of 2015. 54,000 of them arrived in Italy and 48,000 in Greece. More than 1800 perished, or are missing at sea. In 2014, Kirtsoglou, Lyon and Knight carried out a Durham University funded pilot study of migrant communities in Greece and established links to an international network of academics, governmental and non-governmental organizations eager to develop new grassroots initiatives and collaborations. We propose to extend and deepen our initial involvement, by investigating in situ the management of migration emergencies in the critically affected regions of south Italy and the eastern Aegean islands. Our aim is to document and understand migrant subjectivities and motives behind high-risk irregular migration, to identify potemtial gaps in reception structures and to assess the effects of migration on receiving communities. We will engage in a programme of rigorous anthropological research that will involve extended interviews with migrants, local communities, NGO staff and policy makers. We will also carry out extensive observational research in a range of settings such as reception centres, migrant support groups and other community-based locations. Working in collaboration with humanitarian organisations and local government authorities, we will use this data to inform migration policies in the region. Capitalising on our existing links with a network of major stakeholders in two countries and a bottom-up comparative research approach we will pursue the following interconnected questions that demand immediate attention:1) What are the main drivers of high risk migration journeys and how do migrants calculate and weigh-up risk prior to the journey and in its aftermath? 2) How do migrants negotiate the macro-processes that govern migration including border control and asylum seeking policies, and what are the main deficiencies in governmental structures and local systems of reception, including accommodation and screening infrastructures?3) What is the role of local communities in managing migration flows and what is the importance of new forms of social interaction and relationships that emerge from emergency migration encounters in building networks of solidarity toward irregular migrants? 4) What can the comparison of Italian and Greek contexts teach policy developers and NGOs as they endeavour to respond to this crisis? Irregular migration is a complex phenomenon intimately related to different fields such as human rights, national and supranational policies, labour exploitation and economics, lack of sustainable development, international conflict escalation, corruption and security. A fine-grained anthropological account of the social dynamics of emergency migration encounters can provide critical insights on all these different fields. The proposed research aims to go beyond offering a critique to migration policies. By focusing on key actors involved, we lay the basis for comprehensive collaborations between social scientists, humanitarian aid practitioners, governmental and non-governmental authorities. A network of Greek and Italian NGOs support the project, alongside a team with long term involvement and a track record of outstanding research in the critical regions of south and south-eastern Mediterranean. We are uniquely equipped to deliver a wide evidence base of the social, material, legal and political dimensions of migration emergencies and to build new information channels that will help practitioners and authorities exchange knowledge, refine policies and improve the management of future migration crises.