Prerequisits:

There are no specific prerequisites for this course. Basic knowledge of social science and humanities theories and research methods, especially in migration studies, is recommended.

Content: 

The Balkan migrant route (“The Route”, BMR) is the most important overland migration corridor in Europe, leading migrants from Turkey to Trieste. Having existed only marginally for decades it was abruptly and informally opened during the “long summer of migration” in 2015. In 2016, already serving a passage of roughly a million migrants, it gradually closed. These changes have reestablished the previous border regime based on stopping, redirecting, deterring, persecuting of the People on the move and violence but now fortified with walls and enhanced by technological advances (thermal imaging cameras, night vision goggles, tracking devices, surveillance towers, biometric borders). Despite the formal closure of the corridor, it remains one of the most active escape routes for migrants. There is a strong circulation of families and individuals along the route which ddevelop different strategies to cross boundaries and borders in order to reach the EU.

Temeljni literatura in viri:

• Border Violence Monitoring Monthly Reports (2023). https://borderviolence.eu/reports
• Beznec, Barbara ; Kurnik, Andrej (2020) Old routes, new perspectives: a postcolonial reading of the Balkan Route. Movements 5, Issue 1. pg. 33-54. https://movements-journal.org/issues/08.balkanroute/02.beznec,kurnik–old-routes-new-perspectives.html
• De Genova, N. (2011). Spectacles of migrant “illegality”: the scene of exclusion, the obscene of inclusion. https://migrantsproject.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/De-Genova_Spectacle-of-migrants.pdf
• E-ERIM. (2024) https://e-erim.ief.hr/
• Hameršak, M., Pleše, I. (2021). Forest, forest, forest. Sometimes we sleep. Walking, sleep, walking, sleep, walking, sleep. It’s dangerous on this way: Weaponized Migration Landscapes at the Outskirts of the European Union. Etnološka tribina: Godišnjak Hrvatskog ethnološkog društva, 51 (44), 204–221. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/388429&ved=2ahUKEwj1u96b5buQAxXZSfEDHYMHGf4QFnoECDkQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1h2nb_RfnnMDJrXiS3w0V4
• Minca, C., Collins, J. (2021). The game: Or, “the making of migration” along the Balkan Route. Political Geography 91. https://cris.unibo.it/handle/11585/835446

• Stierl, Maurice; Tazzioli, Martina, Mare nero? Undoing the decolonial redux, multiplying (post) colonial legacies and struggles., «JOURNAL OF ETHNIC AND MIGRATION STUDIES», 2025, 51, pp. 2695 – 2714. https://cris.unibo.it/handle/11585/1018339
• Tazzioli, Martina, Assembling traces of border violence. Counter-mapping as counter-archiving., «ENVIRONMENT AND PLANNING D-SOCIETY & SPACE», 2024, 0, pp. 1 – 18. https://cris.unibo.it/handle/11585/1002385
• Tazzioli M, Refugees’(In) dependency Conundrum: Obstructed Social Reproduction Activities and Unpaid Labour in Refugee Camps., «ANTIPODE», 2024, 2024, pp. 1 – 21. https://cris.unibo.it/handle/11585/953684

Objectives and competences:

Main purpose of the course is to enable students to become familiar with the complexity of international migration, in this case irregular migration, which we are trying to bring under a single denominator, the Balkan migration route, and to upgrade their knowledge with the help of critical approaches such as Autonomy of Migration, Critical Border Studies, and Critical Citizenship Studies.

The objectives we pursue are as follows:

1. Theoretical and conceptual knowledge

Understanding key concepts, theories, and frameworks in migration studies, such as migration typologies, migration theories, methodological nationalism, borders, mobility, and globalization

2. Contextual and interdisciplinary awareness, such as understanding migration in relation to global inequality, development, conflicts, and climate change, and the ability to take interdisciplinary perspectives
3. Research and analytical skills

Qualitative and/or quantitative research methods, critical analysis of migration discourses, media, and politics.

4. Ethical and reflective competencies

Awareness of one’s own position and bias,

5. Ethical responsibility in representing and working with migrants, and a commitment to anti-racist, decolonial, and inclusive approaches.

Learning and teaching methods:

Types of learning/teaching:

• Frontal teaching
• Independent students work

Teaching methods:

• Explanation
• Conversation/discussion/debate
• Case studies

Assessment:

Final examination (written/oral) 100 %

Lecturer’s references:

• BEZNEC, Barbara, GOMBAČ, Jure. New migration policies and innovative practices : Slovenia between bordering and inclusion. Innovation : the European journal of social science research. 2023, vol. 36, no. 2, str. 250-265.
• GOMBAČ, Jure, ROGELJA CAF, Nataša, KLUN, Lucija. Counter-archive: reflections on the (non)possibility of migrant heritage. Heriskop : razprave o dediščinjenju na obrobju.
• GOMBAČ, Jure. Augusto Boal in the asylum home : theatre of the oppressed for social entrepreneurship. V: BIANCHINI, Stefano (ur.), BANDINI, Federica (ur.), BOLZANI, Daniela (ur.). Social entrepreneurship and migrants’ inclusion : insights from the Adriatic-Ionian region. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, cop. 2024. Str. 175-198. Sustainable development goals series.
• PEHAR, Asja, GOMBAČ, Jure. “It is not too bad in Slovenia, but it could be much better” : inclusion of asylum seekers and refugees at the borders of Europe. V: BUFON, Milan (ur.), MALLOY, Tove H. (ur.), WILLIAMS, Colin H. (ur.). Societies and spaces in contact : between convergence and divergence. Berlin: P. Lang, cop. 2021. Str. 169-182. Studies in European integration, state and society, vol. 11.
• GOMBAČ, Jure. The role(s) of borders in EU “migration management”. V: ZENNER, Hans-Peter (ur.), ŠELIH, Alenka (ur.). Human rights and refugees. Halle (Saale): Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften; Stuttgart: Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft, 2017. Neue folge, nr. 415, str. 17-22. Nova acta Leopoldina, Neue Folge, Nr. 415.
• GOMBAČ, Jure. “Ogromno delo, uspešno, vzorno!” : “upravljanje” mej v Sloveniji v času povečanega prihoda migrantov 2015/2016. Časopis za kritiko znanosti. 2016, letn. 44, št. 264, str. 72-83. ISSN 0351-4285.