At a time of escalating conflict between states and NGOs engaged in
migrant search and rescue operations across the Mediterranean, this book
explores the emerging trend of citizen-led forms of helping others at
the borders of Europe.
In recent years, Europe’s borders have become new sites of
intervention for traditional humanitarian actors and governmental
agencies, but also, increasingly, for volunteer and activist initiatives
led by "ordinary" citizens. This book sets out to interrogate the
shifting relationship between humanitarianism, the securitization of
border and migration regimes, and citizenship. Critically examining the
"do it yourself" character of refugee aid practices performed by
non-professionals coming together to help in informal and spontaneous
manners, the volume considers the extent to which these new humanitarian
practices challenge established conceptualisations of membership,
belonging, and active citizenship. Drawing on case studies from
countries around Europe including Greece, Turkey, Italy, France and
Russia, this collection constitutes an innovative and theoretically
engaged attempt to bring the field of humanitarian studies into dialogue
with studies of grassroots refugee aid and, more explicitly, with
political forms of solidarity with migrants and refugees which fall
between aid and activism.
This book is key reading for advanced students and researchers of
humanitarian aid, European migration and refugees, and citizen-led
activism.
Publisher's website