Introduction: Resisting Anti-Migrant Politics: Challenging Borders, Boundaries, and Belongings in Europe and Africa

Abstract

This special issue argues that the novelty of current migration realities is not so much due to the scale or forms of migration practices as it is to as the rise of anti-migrant politics, which has led to the institution and differentiation of novel border regimes. Over the years, practices of resistance have developed against these regimes and these politics in different places and on various scales. This special issue highlights the emergent interplay of anti-migrant politics and everyday practices of resisting and subverting them. In their combination, the four articles in this issue make two important contributions: they address the increasing need to unveil unexpected forms of challenging dominant regimes of borders, boundaries, and belongings, and they present a specific case-study-based methodological perspective for capturing counterintuitive and unexpected forms of resisting anti-migrant politics. This special issue stresses the importance of studying resistant practices in different local, regional, national, and continental settings in a comparative and longitudinal manner. Additionally, it emphasizes the consideration of the role of anti-migrant politics and practices as they relate to resistant practices in countries of departure, as in geographic contexts such as the African continent, even if – and especially when – attempts of migration fail due to enhanced border control.