Moving, not to move: anti-authoritarianism, reclaiming society and disrupting the "migrant-per-default" image in shifting Europe(s)
Type
conference contribution
Date Issued
2025-05-29
Author(s)
Abstract
This paper zooms in on on-going protests in Serbia to think about new epistemic horizons
in migration and mobility studies. “It concerns us”, We are staying here”, “Let us change
the society, so we don’t have to change the society”. As these slogans of the student led
protests in Serbia – sparked by the collapse of a newly renovated railway station in the city
of Novi Sad in October 2024 claiming 16 lives – show, the protests do not only articulate
longstanding claims against corruption and authoritarianism, but also take issue with
migration. Stressing their commitment to society in spite of their “mobility capital”, the
students foreground the value of non-migration and thereby disrupt the hegemonic
(balkanist) stereotype of (young) (South)East-Europeans as “migrants-per-default”. At the
same time, it is precisely mobility (walking and cycling in and between cities in Serbia,
and from Serbia to Strasbourg) which figures as a prime protest practice to connect
people and places and spread protest claims.
By building on recent epistemological interventions to demigrantize and deexceptionalize
migration (research), this paper is interested in the political power and
eSects of non-migration claims. Looking at how young protesters “demigrantize”
(stereotypes of themselves) by framing non-migration as a core value in their (highly
mobile) struggle for a livable democratic society is a prime way to analytically access: the
pro-/anti-migration epistemic binary; and the inconsistency and entanglement of both
authoritarian and EU’s “stabilocratic” politics.
in migration and mobility studies. “It concerns us”, We are staying here”, “Let us change
the society, so we don’t have to change the society”. As these slogans of the student led
protests in Serbia – sparked by the collapse of a newly renovated railway station in the city
of Novi Sad in October 2024 claiming 16 lives – show, the protests do not only articulate
longstanding claims against corruption and authoritarianism, but also take issue with
migration. Stressing their commitment to society in spite of their “mobility capital”, the
students foreground the value of non-migration and thereby disrupt the hegemonic
(balkanist) stereotype of (young) (South)East-Europeans as “migrants-per-default”. At the
same time, it is precisely mobility (walking and cycling in and between cities in Serbia,
and from Serbia to Strasbourg) which figures as a prime protest practice to connect
people and places and spread protest claims.
By building on recent epistemological interventions to demigrantize and deexceptionalize
migration (research), this paper is interested in the political power and
eSects of non-migration claims. Looking at how young protesters “demigrantize”
(stereotypes of themselves) by framing non-migration as a core value in their (highly
mobile) struggle for a livable democratic society is a prime way to analytically access: the
pro-/anti-migration epistemic binary; and the inconsistency and entanglement of both
authoritarian and EU’s “stabilocratic” politics.
Language
English
Event Title
Conference, MIGRATION AND BORDER STUDIES: PROSPECTS AND POSSIBllfflES WITHIN AND BEYOND ACADEMIA
Event Location
Queen Mary University, London
Event Date
29-30 May 2025
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Moving, not to move_Paper Proposal Tosic.pdf
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