This edited collection introduces conceptual innovations that critically engage with understanding refugee movements as part of the broader category of ‘poor people’s movements’. The empirical focus of the work lies on the protest events related to the so-called ‘long summer of migration’ of 2015. It traces the route followed by the migrants from the places of first arrival to the places of passage and on to the places of destination.
Through qualitative and quantitative data, the authors map, within a cross-national comparative perspective, the wide set of actions and initiatives that are being created in solidarity with refugees who have made their journey seeking asylum to the European Union, either travelling across the Mediterranean Sea or through South Eastern Europe. It explores these cases from the perspective of social movement studies alongside critical studies on migration and citizenship.
Table of Content
1. Contentious Moves: Mobilising for Refugees’ Rights; Donatella della Porta .- 2. ‘We Have Become Refugees in Our Own Country’: Mobilising for Refugees in Istanbul; Semih Çelik .- 3. Solidarity in Transition: The Case of Greece; Leonidas Oikonomakis .- 4. From Border to Border: Refugee Solidarity Activism in Italy Across Space, Time and Practices; Lorenzo Zamponi .- 5. Interwoven Destinies in the ‘Long Migration Summer’: Solidarity Movements Along the Western Balkan Route; Chiara Milan and Andrea Pirro .- 6. Refugee Solidarity in a Multilevel Political Opportunity Structure: The Case of Spain; Javier Alcalde and Martín Portos .- 7. Emotions That Mobilise: The Emotional Basis of Pro-Asylum Seekers Activism in Austria; Chiara Milan .- 8. Emotions in the Crisis: Mobilising for Refugees in Germany and Sweden; Jochen Kleres .- 9. Scale Shift and Transnationalisation within Refugees’ Solidarity Activism: From Calais to the European Level; Javier Alcalde and Martin Portos .- 10. Europeans, Shut the Borders! Anti-Refugee Mobilization in Italy and France; Pietro Castelli Gattinara .- 11. Mapping Protest on the Refugee Crisis: Insights from Online Protest Event Analysis; Massimiliano Andretta and Elena Pavan .- 12. Contentious Moves: Some Conclusions; Donatella della Porta.
About the author
Donatella della Porta is Professor of Political Science, Dean of the Institute for Humanities and the Social Sciences and Director of the Ph D program in Political Science and Sociology at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence, Italy, where she also leads the Center on Social Movement Studies (Cosmos).