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Detaining asylum seekers at the borders: De jure and De facto practices under the new migration pact
(2025-07) Paul, Noa; Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament de Ciències Polítiques i Socials
This paper examines the EU’s New Pact for Migration and Asylum, addressing concerns about its potential to exacerbate human suffering at EU borders through increased detention. It critically analyzes the Pact’s pre-entry border procedures, focusing on the legal framework for detaining asylum seekers and the provisions’ impact on the right to liberty. To understand whether the procedures risk proliferating unlawful de facto detention, the paper assesses both the new legislation as well as current practices of de facto detention under the so-called hotspot approach on the Greek island of Samos, which served as a blueprint for the Pact. The findings reveal that the new procedures significantly expand the legal and practical possibilities for detaining asylum seekers during screening, asylum border, and return border procedures, risking to render the detention of asylum seekers at the external border the default. Thereby, the provisions contravene the right to liberty enshrined in human rights law in manifold ways. Moreover, by expanding the possibilities for EU countries to impose mobility restrictions, the procedures severely exacerbate the risk for unlawful de facto detention, as the practice of mobility restrictions in places like Samos shows. Rather than representing a shift in EU migratory policies, the paper demonstrates how the Pact replicates and extends existing practices of (unlawfully) detaining asylum seekers under the hotspot approach. The paper argues that these provisions enhance detention capacities to restrict asylum seekers’ mobility and facilitate deportations, aligning predominantly with the Northern EU states’ priorities to curb ‘secondary’ migration.
What role will refugee labour mobility play in the future of safe and legal pathways?: a case study of the Spanish experience
(2025-04) Rodes Durán, Clara; Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament de Ciències Polítiques i Socials
The 2018 Global Compact on Refugees acknowledged the restricted nature of resettlement and the need “to expand its base” by diversifying labour migration opportunities for refugees. Spain’s recent labour mobility project under its National Resettlement Plan offers a case study in this approach, making a shift in legal pathways for refugees. However, the relevance of refugee labour pathways and their normative implications has mainly been ignored. To address the research gap, this article aims to articulate the need for complementary pathways, contribute to theories of refugee labour mobility, and assess whether refugee labour mobility can and should be used as a tool to access territory, with a focus on the Spanish context. To this end, the analysis involves analysing multi-sited policy documents and conducting semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in the field of safe and legal pathways. The analysis demonstrated that, while refugee labour pathways have some potential to expand admission for displaced talent, the line between addition and substitution risks diluting long-term refugee protection. Conditioning admission on labour market utility excludes many in need of international protection and introducing the logic of cost-effectiveness undermines the solidarity inherent in the right to seek asylum, risking the commodification of the international protection system.
Contested collective memories of migrations in Catalonia
(Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament de Ciències Polítiques i Socials, 2025) Zapata Barrero, Ricard; Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament de Ciències Polítiques i Socials
This prospective study examines the role of the M-Factor (Migration Factor) in the formation of a country’s collective memory. Despite the seminal contributions of memory studies to the field of identity formation, the M-Factor in nations’ historical heritage is particularly under-researched. The relationship between national identity and the collective memory of migration, and vice versa, represents a fertile area of enquiry into the formation of contested collective memories. By framing the analysis on the case study of Catalonia, a territorial community in Spain with national claims, which lacks a structured state apparatus and where 73% of the population is result of migrations in the 20th and 21st centuries, this paper provides an illustrative case study of a contested collective memories. In Catalonia there is a discrepancy between the historical reality of migration and its social and political acknowledgment. This apparent paradox presents a compelling opportunity for research that seeks to bridge the fields of collective memory studies and migration studies. The data was collected from existing documents and a sample of 18 semi-structured interviews with a variety of profiles at the meso level, allowing us to saturate the information. The subsequent analysis traversed two domains: diagnosis (the contested collective memories of migration) and normative considerations regarding the potential of a future memory politics. This research provides a basis for a future political theory that addresses intergenerational relations and shared intercultural experiences to ground an inclusive collective memory of migrations.
Exploring the nexus between intercultural participation and segregation through an urban intercultural governance lens
(2024) Marcucci, Diletta; Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament de Ciències Polítiques i Socials
This article analyses how intercultural participation and segregation are interconnected within urban intercultural governance through a review of the literature. It examines how cultural initiatives, particularly, cultural festivals, can be tools to transform urban spaces into ‘intercultural spaces’ or ‘contact zones’ that could foster intercultural participation among segregated migrants. By crossing debates on urban intercultural governance as a conceptual lens, intercultural participation, and segregation, this study identifies the different modalities of intercultural participation, roles and approaches of participants within the context of cultural festivals. Then, it stresses the critical role of local actors within urban intercultural governance in mitigating segregation and enhancing intercultural participation through cultural initiatives. The review challenges the assumed correlation that segregation and intercultural participation are inherently at odds. Indeed, their relationship is rather paradoxical. Intercultural policy might counteract segregation and foster intercultural participation while being inhibited by segregation itself. The article calls for further research to refine the relationship between the two analytical categories suggesting embarking on cross-city comparison in the context of diverse cultural festivals to identify effective local practices. Finally, the focus is on migrants defined as segregated and categorised through dimensions such as age, gender, generation, ethnicity, and occupational attainment, which could inform policy-makers and highlight successful local practices.
Territorial dynamics and local reception of the asylum seekers in rural spaces and small towns
(2024-07) Arfaoui, Rafik; Roth, Hélène; Lécuyer, Joséphine; Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament de Ciències Polítiques i Socials
Since the “long summer of migration” in 2015, the reception of asylum seekers in France has increasingly depended on non-metropolitan areas, which have expanded their reception capacities. These areas, often considered ‘left-behind places’ with more fragile capacity for action, are playing an increasing role in the reception of asylum seekers. This paper explores how the territorial diversity in these areas leads to a variety of the local reception dynamics at the municipal level. Our analysis is based on both quantitative and qualitative methods, using an unprecedented database provided by the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regional Directorate for the Economy, Employment, Labour, and Solidarity in 2023, along with semi-structured interviews with local actors. The research reveals that, the reception of asylum seekers outside metropolitan areas is far from homogeneous, varying according to the specific characteristics of each municipality.
Everyday racism in everyday life: experiences of racist Interactions in shared-cohabited spaces in Barcelona
(2023) Rodríguez-Reche, Cristina; Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament de Ciències Polítiques i Socials
The rejection of the North African community in Spain, chiefly from Morocco, implies one of the primary expressions of racism in the country. This racialisation process relies on visible and stereotypical markers perpetuating a colonial and essentialist category around the image of the "Moor". This racism constitutes a prominent dimension of everyday racism. For this reason, this paper explores how this everyday racism is manifested through the daily social interactions of racialised people, influencing two principal dimensions of everyday life: emotions and decisions. The shared and cohabited spaces will be used as a context for observation and narrative of this link since these interactions with others occur primarily in these spaces. Through 26 in-depth interviews, this contribution highlights that the emotions generated from these racist interactions significantly impact the potential use (or non-use) that racialised people will make of shared spaces based on previous experiences.
From acting to activism: unveiling the construction of the distant sufferer: a critical analysis of celebrity advocacy’s representation of the distant sufferer
(2023-10-02) Pennington, Madeleine; Rodríguez-Reche, Cristina; Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament de Ciències Polítiques i Socials
This paper delves into the convergence of racialisation and feminisation within the framework of Celebrity Advocacy (CA) as it relates to the portrayal of distant sufferers. While previous discussions of CA have explored its ties to neocolonialism and the oversimplification of distant suffering, there has been a notable absence of an intersectional examination, particularly in the context of racialisation and feminisation. Therefore, our research question is framed as follows: “In what ways is the distant sufferer represented in celebrity advocacy?” This study hones in on CA and its depiction of distant sufferers in a post-humanitarian context. Employing a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of Angelina Jolie's discourse and visual analysis of accompanying images, our findings shed light on the racialisation that occurs under Jolie's and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) white gaze. This representation manifests a white saviour complex and adopts a paternalistic tone. We argue that an intersectional approach is imperative to challenge the portrayal of the distant sufferer as a monolithic figure or simply a “third-world woman”. This paper contributes insights into how CA reconceptualizes those on the move, legitimising hegemonic processes favouring the dominant group.
Diversity mainstreaming through intercultural opening in policy and practice
(2023-03-28) Müller, Carolin; Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament de Ciències Polítiques i Socials
Diversity management gradually gains significance regarding recent migrations and growing hostility in Germany’s urban societies. In the state of Saxony, where right-wing extremism is on the rise, cultural and social policies and civil society initiatives have tried to use cultural and social education and participation (CSEP) to remedy unmanaged diversity and to reduce negative effects of discrimination against negatively racialized people. Zapata-Barrero (2017) speaks of the intercultural turn when diversity is seen as a resource, an advantage, and an opportunity for community cohesion and conflict mitigation. This article sheds light on the intercultural turn in CSEP in Saxony through a case study of the right-wing hotspot Dresden. A qualitative analysis of Dresden’s diversity management policies and 2017-22 ethnographic data identifies the premises, opportunities, and challenges: commitments to interculturality are cross-sectional; diversity projects increased; vertical forms of participation emerged, but also pointed to loopholes that leave migrants at a disadvantage.
A case study on the revitalisation of shrinking Spain: migrant reception in rural areas
(2022) Egea, Iris; Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament de Ciències Polítiques i Socials
This paper builds upon the growing European political interest in countering rural areas’ depopulation and shrinking trends through rural immigration. Since rural areas’ peripheral characteristics may hinder the host society’s receptivity capacity and migrants’ revitalising potential, this paper raises the question: What factors influence the receptivity of migration to rural areas and its potential for revitalisation? which is addressed with a pilot case study focusing on Aragón’s County of Jiloca (Central Spain), where an integration project took place between 2021-22. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, the study preliminary finds that rural areas’ community’s proactivity, strong coordination and social proximity factors favour receptivity. However, social control and challenging structural factors (housing, employment, services, connectivity) hinder rural receptivity capacity. Simultaneously, prevalent socioeconomic inequalities and racism hamper migrants’ revitalising potential. The study finally advocates for a synergy between rural revitalisation and receptivity and uncovers the long-standing role of rural areas in migration management.
Urban asylum policy in openly conflicting, decoupled migration governance: the case of Barcelona
(2022) Mazza, Jenna; Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament de Ciències Polítiques i Socials
This paper uses Barcelona’s Nausica asylum seeker integration program to understand 1) what leads local governments to diverge from national policy on migration issues within decoupled, openly conflicting governance arrangements, and 2) what can result at the local level from cities’ and national actors’ diverging policy perspectives. Based on interviews with policy elites and the nonprofits managing Nausica, this paper argues that differing state and local logics of care can lead municipalities to utilize devolved competencies to address migration-related needs. Adding to the literature that examines municipal engagement on migration policy issues, the article focuses on city-level governance and definitions of citizenship, which works to combat methodological nationalism in migration studies and relates to migrant cosmopolitanism. The paper’s results also raise additional questions on how these insights can be applied by cities currently responding to the outpouring of refugees from Ukraine.
“Unscrupulous people posing as children”: the problematisation of unaccompanied children in UK Home Office policy discourse
(2022) Clifford, Isabel; Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament de Ciències Polítiques i Socials
This article builds upon the premise that the Home Office holds the most significant power over constructing policy truthsabout unaccompanied children in the UK. This discursive creation of policy truthsconveys a rationality of governing that is convenedinto a technology of government, shaping the actions of those contracted by the Home Office to implement policy towards unaccompanied children. This paper critically analyses Home Office policy statements and guidance to uncover the ways in which unaccompanied children are constructed as a policy problem in the UK. The analysis reveals that unaccompanied children are problematised under four main frames: the delegitimization of children arriving irregularly, the construction of unaccompanied children as both a vulnerable burden and paradoxically as ‘unchildlike’, “unscrupulous” and ‘bogus’. Finally, unaccompanied children are discursively produced as ‘migrants first, children second’, severely implicating their access to safeguarding upon arrival into the UK.
Welcoming meaning(s): values circulation between citizens and institutions about migrants’ reception in Barcelona
(2021) Hombert, Louise; Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament de Ciències Polítiques i Socials
This paper aims to analyse the circulation of welcoming values between local institutions and the civil society, regarding asylum seekers and refugees’ reception between 2015 and 2020. What values are promoted by the institutions? How are they transmitted and how does the civil society respond to it? This work first explores the awareness-raising policies put in place by Barcelona City Council and the government of Catalunya, in order to sensibilize the population to the necessities of being “welcoming” and to propose a “participation model”. The paper then focuses on the civil society role. The latter is in fact the one who first promoted welcoming values in 2015, through massive street demonstrations or numerous letters and solicitations, urging then local public authorities to get engaged in reception processes. But nowadays, many citizen collectives criticize these institutions’ attitudes, and try to propose other values regarding the reception context in Barcelona.
Debordering processes and resilient ontological security at the city level: the case study of Barcelona in perspective
(2021) Zapata Barrero, Ricard; Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament de Ciències Polítiques i Socials
Staying within the debate, which links border studies and migration studies, my purpose is to conceptualise a focus that connects two heuristic approaches: ontological security and urban resilience. I will follow the rationale path that the normative foundation of resilience is ontological security. I will state that at the city level the concern on the “security of the self” driving resilience operates at two levels: at the social level, the city council’s resilience strategy seeks to maintain cohesion-making; at the individual level, the city council seeks to provide migrants with the minimum inclusive threshold of “the right to have rights” This paper is the outcome of an exploratory theoretical-empirical research. First, I introduce the theoretical background linking ontological security and debordering processes at the city scale. Then, the conceptual lens linking ontological security and resilience strategies will be justified. Thirdly, the Barcelona debordering processes’ case study will be examined with a methodological section leading the presentation of findings. Finally, concluding remarks will draw some paths for further comparative research.
Representations of ethnic diversity: the role of public institutions for inclusionary citizenship practices
(2021) Hellgren, Zenia; Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament de Ciències Polítiques i Socials
This paper takes the case of Catalonia to inquire into how ethnic diversity is represented in the public institutions, considering both pro-diversity agendas and the actual presence of people from diverse origins in different positions. Based on data from the REPCAT project, it applies a normative approach and suggests that an increased representation of immigrants and members of ethnic minority groups is necessary in order to fulfil intercultural policy aims, and, at a broader level, that the representation of ethnic diversity in public institutions such as the education system and the police force is a democratic necessity in the superdiverse European societies of today. Focus is then shifted towards how to address the persisting underrepresentation, considering targeting or transformative measures, and to what extent there is receptiveness for a transformation towards more ethnically plural public institutions that are more representative of the whole citizenry.
Governing diversity in Europe’s plural spaces : a path to new normativities
(2020) Fossum, John Erik; Kastoryano, Riva; Modood, Tariq; Zapata Barrero, Ricard; Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament de Ciències Polítiques i Socials
The question of how to reconcile diversity and integration has occupied public debates, political agendas and social sciences for decades. This WP provides a brief outline of how the project Negotiating Diversity in Expanded European Public Spaces addresses these matters. Our point of departure is that questions pertaining to the governing and recognition of diversity in Europe cannot be properly addressed without at the same time taking into account the multilevel character of European public space, the multiple characters of the groups (national/religion based etc), and the multiple modes of integration. Within such a complex European space, we identify four policy/theoretical approaches to diversity management and understanding of public space: multiculturalism, interculturalism, transnationalism and cosmopolitanism. Each ‘ism’ has its own conception of public space, diversity, equality and solidarity. Our main aim is to contribute to the normativities that inform the theory and practice of integration and diversity governance in Europe.
Immigrants and native families in schools : reconciling trust and diversity
(2020) Prokic, Mina; Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament de Ciències Polítiques i Socials
This paper explores what the main perceptions of immigrant families are by native families and how these reflect in their trust in public schools. It reviews the existing literature on immigration and the main concepts of trust related to school culture and climate. The research is done in Barcelona and is based on in-depth interviews and focus groups, comparing the discourse of the parents of children in schools in neighborhoods with high and low levels of immigration. The data from the fieldwork indicate that the cultural, social and physical distance perceived by the natives, and the different language and religion of the immigrants constitute the major sources of prejudice and racism. Moreover, in my analysis I have distinguished between two different ways that perceptions on immigration result in distrust in institutions: perceptions that result in distrust within the schools and perceptions that result in distrust in higher level institutions.
Sub-state identities and immigrant integration policies : the cases of Andalusia and Catalonia
(2020) Marano, Luca; Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament de Ciències Polítiques i Socials
Fitting in the line of research that brings together the politics of minority nationalism and that of immigrant multiculturalism, the present paper tries to answer the following research question: To what extent does the presence of a sub-state national identity affect regional immigrant integration policies? Based on the assumption that there is a qualitative difference between regional and minority national identities, the paper develops as a binary comparative study on the immigrant integration policies of a standard region (Andalusia) and a minority nation (Catalonia). The analysis shows that the major differences between their immigrant integration policies concern the discourse rather than the content. In addition, the paper takes Billig’s notion of ‘banal nationalism’ and questions the idea that Andalusian policies are less assimilationist than Catalan policies.
El desafío de la democracia y la ciudadanía multicultural en Argentina
(2020) Cantón Gardes, Damián Andrés; Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament de Ciències Polítiques i Socials
La democracia y la ciudadanía multicultural y, en forma especial, la ‘otredad’ se presentan como las responsabilidades en términos de convivencia a nivel nacional, regional e incluso global. Sin embargo, en Argentina aún persiste una deuda pendiente en materia de reflexión y revisión profunda no solo sobre el proceso de conformación y consolidación de su Estado nacional, sino que también mantiene un débil ejercicio en relación a una filosofía del espacio público y la relación con la alteridad ‘no argentina’ que habita en el mismo territorio. De esta manera se comparten avances del estudio realizado en terreno con poblaciones indígenas mapuche en la Patagonia y wichi en Salta, como también el caso de inmigrantes peruanos y venezolanos tanto en Ciudad de Buenos Aires como en Ciudad de Córdoba, que sirven como base para discutir en torno a la Triada que se impone en las sociedades modernas compuestas por el Estado/Nación/Ciudadanía.
Qualitative migration research ethics : mapping the core challenges
(2019) Zapata Barrero, Ricard; Yalaz, Evren; Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament de Ciències Polítiques i Socials
When conducting qualitative research, migration scholars are often confronted with particular ethical issues. Since migration researchers often work on vulnerable, hard-to-reach, and sensitive populations, the protection of participants and their information may become a challenging task. The exploratory and flexible nature of qualitative research proves that standardized codes of ethical conduct cannot adequately address emerging issues during the qualitative research process. This article aims to map current ethical challenges that migration scholars often face as well as to provide some guidance while acknowledging the fact that many researchers deal with ethical challenges on a case-by-case basis. It starts by placing qualitative migration research ethics (QMRE) at the crossroads of qualitative migration research and research ethics debates and reviewing the main issues of this emerging literature. Then, we map ethical issues involved in different research stages including before, during, and after the fieldwork. We conclude insisting on the particularities of the critical ethical consciousness in migration studies. We also claim the need to incorporate these ethical issues in higher education programs and the need of teaching the best ethical principles in classroom environments to young migration researchers.
Assembling borders, territory and human rights in migration management policies
(2019) Reviglio, Martino; Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament de Ciències Polítiques i Socials
The EU is facing a migration management dilemma. The compromise between inclusion and exclusion developed by the European Court of Human Rights failed to guarantee human rights obligations and security challenges. This situation has put pressure on the member states overlooking the Mediterranean Sea namely Italy, Greece and Spain. In this scenario, these member states have attempted to pursue strategies to contain the phenomenon assuring both human rights and security. The paper analyses two different strategies developed by the Italian government in the last five years to respond to the Libyan migration crisis. These policies are the Mare Nostrum policies and the Minniti policies. These policies are designed around three components: Borders; Territory; Human Rights. The paper suggests that these pillars are assembled differently at different times to achieve specific policy goals. In doing so, the normative assemblage could be instrumental to either an inclusive or an exclusive policy.

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