Migration, Mobilities and the Arab Spring: Spaces of Refugee Flight in the Eastern Mediterranean

Confronting questions of globalization, mobilities and space in the Mediterranean, and more specifically in the eastern Mediterranean, this book introduces a new type of complexity and ambiguity to the study of the global. In this theoretical frame an increasingly urban articulation of global logics and struggles, and an escalating use of urban space to make political claims, not only by citizens but also by foreigners, can be found. By emphasizing the interplay between global, regional and local phenomena, the book examines new forms and conditions, such as the transformation of borders, the reconfiguration of transnational communities, the agency of transnational families, new mobilities and diasporas, and transnational networks of humanitarian response.

The contributions from a variety of disciplines demonstrate that the reconfiguration of mobilities and the accompanying problem of inhospitable politics towards refugees at different levels, as well as humanitarian responses to it, is one of the major impacts, globally speaking, of the Arab Spring. Through the reconfiguration of such new mobilities there is an urgency to properly map the space of the many trajectories of those transnational connections. The editor concludes that there is, however, great difficulty in doing so as it is constantly disconnected by new arrivals, constantly waiting to be determined by the configuration and reconfiguration of both historical and contemporary relations.

This exploration of migration, mobilities and the Arab Spring, is essential reading for scholars across a multitude of disciplines. The book's themes are of major interest and importance for policymakers and administrators at national and international levels.

Contributors include: H. Afailal, R. Al Akash, C. Beaugrand, K. Boswall, C. Denaro, K. Doraï, V. Geisser, L. Navone, N. Ribas-Mateos, S. Sassen, S. Schmelter, C.H. Schwarz

Edited by Natalia Ribas-Mateos, Senior Researcher, TRANSMENA (Research Group), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain and at MESOPOLHIS (Aix-en-Provence, Marseille), France