Geographies of migration I

Abstract

This first report on Geographies of Migration primarily centers on refugees. I first summarize some of the debates about categories scholars use to describe people who move across space. The article then discusses three prominent themes in geographic research on refugees, turning first to the securitization of migration, its spatial and territorial practices of migration management, and the reworking of borders. Next, I highlight research on the warehousing of refugees in camps and cities, and the protracted uncertainty these practices create. The third major strand of scholarship I discuss challenges ‘the refugee condition’ that deems refugees passive victims in need of intervention and focuses instead on refugees’ everyday and embodied experiences of displacement, their subjectivities and agency.