The social construction of border zones: A comparison of two geopolitical cases

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Gabriele Rosenthal
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2014 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 253541373

We plan to continue our study of the social construction of two border zones by using the extensive material already collected (mainly in the form of interviews, group discussions and memos of participant observations), as well as new field research, to analyse the significant changes that have taken place in the two study areas and among the different refugee groupings in recent years. On the one hand, there have been changes in the figurations between different groupings of long-time residents, and in the practices of the police and military units at the borders, and on the other hand, changes in the refugee groupings, their migration routes, the strategies they use to get across borders, and their perspectives of the different national borders. Our analysis will be based on empirical data gathered from interviews and observations. In order to gain further empirical evidence for our assumptions we intend to conduct additional interviews and participant observations.At the Spanish-Moroccan border, despite all attempts to improve border security, it repeatedly happens that larger groupings of migrants succeed in getting over the fence, or single individuals manage to cross the border illegally using different methods. The refugee groupings, their migration courses, and the way they present their collective belongings, have changed considerably over the period in which we have been conducting our research, due in part to changes in Europes asylum policy. Here it is especially residents on the Moroccan side who try to profit financially from the situation in which illegalized migrants are faced with stricter border controls. Up to now the residents of Melilla and Ceuta have been relatively indifferent to the changing groupings of refugees, while the changing demographic relationship between Christians and Muslims is a constant source of conflict, even if this is often denied. At the Israeli-Egyptian border, by contrast, it is scarcely possible to cross the border illegally, and the practice of forcing people to sign that they consent to being expelled to an allegedly safe African country has the result that those who have escaped from Eritrea and Sudan now increasingly choose to cross the Mediterranean in order to get to Europe. Among those who are still living in Israel, clear changes can be observed in their perspectives on migration routes and on Israel, as well as changes in their daily practices that are intended to make it easier to stay in Israel. In order to study this phenomenon more closely, we are not only planning to conduct more interviews with refugees in Israel, but also to interview Eritreans who have been deported from Israel to Uganda, and Eritrean refugees who are currently in refugee camps in Ethiopia and who are probably hoping to get to Israel. In this border zone, a clear deterioration can be observed in the relations between Jewish and Bedouin Israelis.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Israel
• Cooperation Partners: Efrat Ben Zeev, Ph.D.; Nir Gazit, Ph.D.