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

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.