Research

Launch of the Maritime (im)mobilities Lab

Place: Bielefeld University

Time: 6 - 8 May 2026

Organisers: Antje Missbach (antje.missbach@uni-bielefeld.de) and Gerhard Hoffstaedter (g.hoffstaedter@uq.edu.au)

Migrants risking their lives at sea is one of the key challenges of our times. Journeys across the sea are often deemed more dangerous due to the very unpredictable nature of the open waters. Current portrayals focus on boats as deathscapes, but we want to highlight and emphasise the conditions and experiences of life on board. Maritime migrants, unlike those moving by land or air, are often outside any state jurisdiction. Such irregular maritime migration puts to the test existing relations among neighbours, long-established maritime traditions, and the humanitarian commitments of the international community, particularly towards forced migrants and refugees.

All people on board of a refugee boat face the same dangers at sea: drowning, dying of hunger or dehydration, which can create a sense of transitory community. Yet, to ignore intersectional power dynamics (age, race, gender, health and class) and to assume equality amongst them would be naïve. Not everybody onboard has the same capacities to fend for themselves. In contrast, based on the physical and psychological constitution of the passengers thrown together, hierarchies of power evolve amongst the seemingly anarchic situations onboard. The outcomes for passengers are often unpredictable, as they meander between tension, solidarity, intimacy, competition and transgression.

The fears in the Global North of irregular(ised) or mass immigration have resulted in more restrictive border and migration controls that require new research on a crucial, yet under-researched site of those fleeing: The boat. As vital vehicle in the wider migration infrastructure, boats, and what happens aboard them, need more in-depth theorisation. Boats journeys are influenced both by external regulatory factors (national and regional migration regimes) as well as internal dynamics of the passengers themselves. Journeys of escape can become dramatic odysseys of despair; not least as maritime mobility cannot be equated with freedom and liberty. The politics of rejection at sea creates a new quality of strandedness, not least as they help transform boats from vehicles of escape into floating prisons.

By making boats, routes and the spaces they transgress the basis of theorising about maritime (im)mobilities and by initiating an interdisciplinary and transnational Maritime (Im)mobilites Laboratory of researchers, this workshop will accumulate new knowledge about global migration trends and how structural determinants, such as deterrence, non-disembarkation or non-rescue policies exacerbate prolonged refugee journeys and engineer helplessness. This workshop will investigate the interplay of external and internal factors that impede refugee boat journeys by studying the recent maritime mass movements in Southeast Asia, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and the Red Sea.

To build a long-lasting network, we are particularly interested in transdisciplinary discussions and theorisations of the sea and boats therein from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds. Throughout the workshop and beyond we hope to engage with some the following questions:

1. What are the current trends among aspiring migrants and refugees when attempting to cross the Andaman Sea, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and the Red Sea?
2. What are the social and psychological impacts of maritime migration on refugees?
3. What technical, political and legal countermeasures are used by governments or transregional bodies to deter unwanted migrations and disembarkations?
4. What roles do nonstate actors (NGOs, humanitarians, social movements, media) play in making passages safer?
5. How do the facilitators of unsanctioned passaged react towards the needs of migrants and refugees as well as to the counter measures by governments?
6. What can be learnt from historical case studies and insights to inform current debates on maritime refugees?
7. What are key methodological and ethical concerns when studying maritime refugees?

 
If you are interested in participating in the workshop, please send us an abstract of 250-350 words until 20 September 2025 (antje.missbach@uni-bielefeld.de or roswitha.rohlfing@uni-bielefeld.de
Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in contact with us.