“Stultifera Navis” on the Balkan Refugees Route

Collection centres and hot spots, asylum and detention centres for refugees are forms of institutiona­lisation and spatial segregation of people. The well-known processes of the “big confinement”, bio­politics and the creation of “populations” are today pervaded with the ideologies of eurocentrism, culturalisation and cultural racism produced by the media. Compared with the processes of spatial segregation of the disabled in the past, one can conclude that while the deinstitutionalisation was achieved in the west and is in some countries on its way (in Slovenia for example), the institutionali­sation of migrants and refugees takes place across Europe. Instead of the construction of the refugees as the national threat, health risk and the cultural Other, the measures of deinstitutionalisation and depathologisation of the refugees’ lives are needed.
KEY WORDS: refugees, eurocentrism, biopolitics, “Balkan refugee route”, deinstitutionalisation

SUMMARY 

In 2015 1,015 million persons who fled from Syria, Afganistan and Iraq to the western and northern countries took either the Mediterranean or the Balkan refugee routes. The latter was different from all other migrant footpaths in the last decades due to the migration corridor which existed from August 2015 until early 2016 and was relatively free of surveillance for people to cross the borders and to move. With the increased number of refugees the Balkan states increased the militarization of the borders with the fences, razor wires, collection centres and hot spots. The article focuses on one dimension of the management of migration which is the institutionalisation of migrants and refugees in collection centres and hot spots, asylum and detention centres. The well-known processes of the “big confinement”, biopolitics and the creation of “populations” are today pervaded with the ideologies of eurocentrism, culturalisation and cultural racism widely used by the media. An important part of the “management of migration” is the institutionalisation of people who flee from economic devastation and wars. Compared with the processes of spatial segregation of the disabled and people with mental health problems in the past, one can conclude that while the deinstitutionalisation has become a democratic norm for some people, an increase of the institutionalisation of migrants and refugees takes place. The lack of the democratic reflection about global interconnectedness of people and causes of economic scarcity and wars, bring about the confinement of new “populations” on a large scale, caused by the biopolitics of the nation states. Instead of the construction of the refugees as the national threat, health risk and cultural othering, the measures of deinstitutionalisation and depathologisation of the refugees’ lives are needed. During the Balkan refugee route local population gradually increased their negative sentiments against refugees and media produced and reproduced very negative images of the migrant people. The old-fashion images of the “Turks” who are going to violate the Balkan population again were used by the media to support the militarization of the borders. In the western countries the image of the Balkan refugee route supported the processes of the re-emerging of balkanism and the process of turning the Balkan semi-periphery into an actual tampon-zone and the prison-like territory where the West not only projects its fantasies of the economic and moral superiority but pushes back real people whom the West doesn’t want to receive.