Euro-Mediterranean diasporas' perceptions of migration (governance) crisis

The combined consequences of the debt crisis, the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011 and the subsequent advent of the ‘migration crisis’ in 2015 have reinforced the structural challenges faced by EU frontline member states in hosting large numbers of migrants in spite of their limited logistical capacities. While nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiment have intensified across both ends of the Mediterranean, further reinforcing migration externalization, securitization and criminalization policies as well as ‘crisis’ discourses in the political and media arenas, initiatives expressing solidarity towards people on the move have multiplied in key countries of ‘transit’. This working paper forms the basis for a qualitative PhD study comparing insights from Greek, Italian and Turkish migrants living in Brussels, shedding light on how they have engaged with the governance of migration ‘back home’ in recent years, specifically through their perceptions of crisis discourses and narratives, hospitality practices and migration policies. This paper is built on the hypothesis that perceptions and attitudes are polarized, revealing practices of ‘othering’ on behalf of selected immigrant groups living in Brussels vis-à-vis migrant populations in their country of origin, as well as the importation and reproduction of discourses and local and/or transnational practices of hospitality.