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(PAIS, ¹û¶³´«Ã½), with Co-Is Dr Dallal Stevens (Law, ¹û¶³´«Ã½), Professor Nick Vaughan-Williams (PAIS, ¹û¶³´«Ã½), Dr Angeliki Dimitriadi (ELIAMEP, Athens), and Dr Maria Pisani (Malta), have been awarded over 150K for an project entitled 'Crossing the Mediterranean Sea by boat: Mapping and documenting migratory journeys and experiences.’

While migrant deaths en route to the European Union are by no means new, the level and intensity of recent tragedies is unprecedented. More than 1850 deaths were recorded January-May 2015, demanding swift action on the part of EU Member States. This project produces a timely and robust evidence base as grounds for informing policy interventions developed under emergency conditions across the Mediterranean. It does so by assessing the impact of such interventions on those that they affect most directly: migrants or refugees themselves. This project undertakes such an assessment by engaging the journeys and experiences of people migrating, asking:

• What are the impacts of policy interventions on migratory journeys and experiences across the Mediterranean?
• How do refugees or migrants negotiate complex and entwined migratory and regulatory dynamics?
• In what ways can policy be re-shaped to address migrant deaths at sea?

The project focuses on three EU island arrival points in Greece, Italy and Malta. Qualitative interview data, both textual and visual, is produced through an interdisciplinary participatory research approach. The project contributes: an interdisciplinary perspective on the legal and social implications of policy interventions in the region; a comparative perspective on migratory routes and methods of travel across the Mediterranean; a qualitative analysis of the journeys and experiences of refugees and migrants; and methodological insights into participatory research under emergency conditions.

A virtual special issue of the prestigious international journal Political Geography has been published on the topic of 'the Politics of Migration' featuring PAIS academics.

Of the selected ten articles written between 1989 and 2015 are two by researchers in the cluster in PAIS:

• '"Desert trash"': Posthumanism, border struggles, and humanitarian politics', by
• '"We are not animals!" Humanitarian border security and zoopolitical spaces in EUrope', by

The virtual special issue reflects the internationally-renowned expertise in borders and migration research within the Department.

Available for free until 16 October 2015, the virtual special issue can be accessed here:

Dr. Maria Koinova has a new article "Sustained vs. Episodic Mobilization among Conflict-generated Diasporas," published in International Political Science Review on July 8, 2015. It is appears just in time for the 20-th anniversary of the fall of the Srebrenca enclave and the commemoration of the death of more than 8.000 Muslims, killed by Serbian paramilitary forces in 1995. On the basis of a comparative study of Bosnian Muslims, Serbs, and Croats in the Netherlands, the articles argues that a non-resolved issue between a host-state, home-state, and diasporas, such as the failure of Dutch peace-keeping forces to protect the Srebrenica enclave in 1995, is still alive today in the Netherlands. This is despite earlier half-measures by the host-state to take some responsibility and more recent court cases. This issue is very important why migrants have a difficulty to move on from their traumatic pasts in the Netherlands, unlike in Sweden, and that they mobilise in sustained ways.

More information about the article could be found here:

Rune Møller Stahl, a visiting PAIS PhD student, has written an extended article for the Jacobin Magazine on the results of the recent General Election in Denmark and its implications for the Danish left. The full article can be found here under the title of 'Denmark's Nativist Threat':

Rune Møller Stahl, a visiting PAIS PhD student, appeared live on TV2 News in Denmark to discuss the Greek referendum on whether to accept the terms of the international bailout. Rune was asked about what the result of the referendum might mean for the ability of the Troika to see its programme of austerity implemented in Greece and also for the ability of the Syriza Government to keep the country in the Eurozone in the event of a default.