Razor-wired : stranded migrants in Macedonia

Abstract

This thesis builds a theoretical pyramid of the border strategies employed by European and – consequently, Macedonian officials in the context of the migrant crisis of 2015-2016. At the base of this pyramid lay (1) the building of Fortress Europe along the external borders of the Union and (2) the simultaneous thickening of those borders towards territories outside the continent. I argue that in this configuration the Balkans are turned into borderlands where a state of exception allows for easier deviation of the common norms. Macedonia’s strategy of ‘bordering, ordering and othering’ of the migrants, stays at the top of the pyramid of exclusive border policies. Their result I expose through the detail research on the human rights violations endured by the stranded migrants in the Balkan state. Unable to regulate their stay in Macedonia, they are, in practice, denied the Arendtian Right to have rights.

Key Words: Border Politics, Macedonia, Stranded Migrants, European migrant crisis, the Balkan Route