Research

 

 

 

Funded by

Initiative Open Up – New Research Spaces for the Humanities and Cultural Studies

Duration

September 2025 - February 2027

 

Refugees risking their lives at sea is a key challenge of our times. Nonetheless, Refugee Studies remain primarily concerned with land-based movements. Refugee boats – and what happens aboard and at sea – need more in-depth theorisation for several reasons:

1) Maritime refugees, unlike those moving by land or air, often remain outside any state jurisdiction.

2) Maritime movements put to the test maritime rescue traditions and the humanitarian commitments of the international community towards refugees.

3) Maritime refugees are affected even more by the deterrence politics ofpotential destination countries and their assertion of sovereignty through more restrictive border controls. The longer refugees remain at sea the less likely their survival.

Against the terrestrial and other geo-political biases in Refugee Studies (“Global North-centricism”) that keep producing imbalanced theory-making on migration, this project will initiate a Maritime Turn to prompt the conceptualisation of sea-bound refugee movements. Thus, by making routes and spaces at sea the basis of theorising about human (im)mobilities and by initiating an interdisciplinary and transnational Maritime (Im)mobilites Laboratory of researchers, this project will produce new knowledge about truly global migration trends and how structural determinants, such as deterrence, non-disembarkation or non-rescue policies exacerbate prolonged refugee journeys and engineer helplessness.