Governing European borderlands: Austerity, migrant (im)mobility and the politics of aid in crisis-ridden Greece

正如乌克兰战争的破坏性后果、塔利班在阿富汗的全面推进以及目前的气候危机所表明的那样，强迫流离失所和移民人数不断上升的趋势不太可能在短期内改变。在这一背景下，我的研究提出了一个非常重要和及时的探索，即在全球危机和动荡的跨国流动中，边界如何变化。更具体地说，它关注的是这些过程在希腊形成的过程，过去几十年，希腊是欧洲移民过境和新自由主义重组的主要场所。我的博士研究通过试图解决以下问题来探讨这一主题：在“欧洲难民危机”之后，为了重新控制移民流动，采取了哪些空间、时间和法律策略，以及他们的历史和社会政治遗产是什么？在欧洲边境地区运作的政府、非政府和欧盟机构之间的协同效应和紧张关系产生了哪些治理模式，并使之合法化？“难民危机”是如何运作的，以便为“希腊主权债务危机”提供“解决方案”？反过来，后者又是如何制约为解决“难民危机”而设计的“解决方案”的？在回答这些问题时，我的博士学位提供了一种新颖而细致入微的理解，即“难民”和“经济危机”是如何共同构成欧洲边境空间的。更进一步，它强调了通过人道主义援助和政府间合作来弥补业务缺陷的努力如何成为重塑危机频发的空间和未来的重要因素，超出了“难民紧急情况”的范围。我的博士学位打造了一种处理边界和移民的新方法，结合了社会法律分析、政治地理学、批判性地缘政治以及国家和非政府组织实践的民族志，以揭示边界是如何产生的，以及它们又是如何产生空间、时间和身份的。这项研究从对救援人员、边防警卫、营地管理人员、政府官员的60次访谈、对欧盟热点地区、警察总部和人道主义空间的人种学观察、对地图、统计数据和政策的批判性分析中提取了丰富的材料，突出了对边界在我们当代世界中的复杂作用的深刻和跨学科的分析。它进一步为移民权利组织、工会和寻求解决侵犯人权行为以及紧缩政治对移民和当地造成的后果的政策制定者做出了重大贡献。ESRC奖学金将支持我成为一名面向公众的学者的长期抱负，使我能够传播我的博士研究成果，并最大限度地影响不同的受众。在亚历克斯·杰弗里教授的专家指导下，该奖学金将特别允许我：1.建立跟踪记录，并通过在领先期刊上发表的三篇高质量出版物传播博士研究成果；2.通过组织和参与学术活动和建立研究网络，在学科范围内建立我的研究，并发展学术网络，为未来的合作创造机会；3.向政策利益相关者和非学术受众传播博士研究成果，以产生更广泛的社会影响；4.4.利用奖学金时间和建议的活动来发展我未来的研究事业，以最终完成一本书的提案，在奖学金结束时获得一份图书合同，并向Leverhulme早期职业联谊会和英国科学院博士后联谊会研究计划提交博士后研究资金申请。

As the devastating consequences of the war in Ukraine, Taliban's sweeping advance over Afghanistan and the ongoing climate crisis show, the trend of uninterrupted rise in forced displacement and migration is unlikely to change any time soon. Within this context, my research presents a fundamentally important and timely exploration of how borders transform amidst global crises and turbulent transnational mobilities. More specifically, it focuses on these processes as they took shape in Greece, a premier space of migrant transit and neoliberal restructuring in Europe over the last decades. My PhD research explored this topic by seeking to address the following questions: Which spatial, temporal, and legal tactics were deployed for regaining control over migrant mobilities in the aftermath of 'the European refugee crisis' and what is their historical and socio-political legacy? What modes of governance did the synergies and tensions between governmental, non-governmental and EU agencies operating in European borderlands produce and legitimise? How was the 'refugee crisis' operationalised to provide 'solutions' to the 'Greek sovereign debt crisis' and conversely, how did the latter condition the 'solutions' devised to tackle the 'refugee crisis'? In addressing these questions, my PhD offers a novel and nuanced understanding of how a 'refugee' and an 'economic crisis' co-constituted Europe's border spaces. Going a step further, it highlights how attempts to offset operational deficiencies through humanitarian aid and inter-governmental cooperation became instrumental in reshaping crisis-ridden spaces and futures beyond the scope of a 'refugee emergency'. My PhD forges a new approach to borders and migration combining socio-legal analysis, political geography, critical geopolitics, and ethnographies of state and of NGO practices to unravel how borders are produced and how, in turn, they produce space, time and identities. Drawing from a rich material of sixty interviews with aid workers, border guards, camp managers, government officials, ethnographic observations in EU hotspots, police headquarters and humanitarian spaces, critical analysis of maps, statistics, and policies, this research foregrounds an incisive and interdisciplinary analysis about the complex role of borders in our contemporary world. It further presents a significant contribution for migrant rights organisations, trade unions, and policy makers seeking to tackle human rights violations and the consequences of austerity politics on both migrants and locals.The ESRC fellowship will support my long-term aspiration to become a public-facing academic by enabling me to disseminate the findings of my PhD research and maximise its impact on diverse audiences. With the expert mentorship of Professor Alex Jeffrey, the Fellowship will allow me, in particular, to: 1. Establish a track record and disseminate PhD research findings through three high-quality publications in leading journals; 2. Establish my research within the discipline and develop academic networks towards creating opportunities for future collaboration, through organising and participating in academic events and forging research networks;3. Disseminate PhD research findings to policy stakeholders and non-academic audiences for broader social impact; 4. 4. Develop my future research career by using the fellowship time and proposed activities to finalise a book proposal, securing a book contract by the end of the fellowship, and submit postdoctoral research funding applications to the Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship and British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship Research schemes.