Eroded and Reconfigured: The Dwelling Infrastructures of the Mukara along the Belgian-French Route to the UK

In Belgium, the Dublin regulation impactes the movements of unauthorised migrants strikingly. Due to the delegation of responsibility on the protection of asylum seekers, many are left excluded. The “Dublinised” people facing the stagnation of their cases and the exhaustion that comes from waiting indefinitely in makeshift situations take matters into their own hands. Often, they seek routes that might lead to stronger prospects of protection or sanctuary. In their perception, reaching the UK—a place where the Dublin Regulation does not hold the same sway—offers hope for taking routes of escape.

Many “dublinised” journeys from Belgium to the UK find themselves suspended or pushed back by the state’s approach of the zero-point-of-fixation, controlling the corridor linking western Belgium to the northern ports of France, the primary gateway to the UK. Despite the hostility met in this route, the movement of people is sustained by intricate and often unexpected stations through their route. Along this route not-for-profit and for-profit facilitators create stations that allow dwelling and sanctuary in moments of suspension and push back in border zones. Makeshift camps, squats, and host’s respite shelters are all transitory dwelling spaces for people escaping their exclusion from protection and legal statutes enacted by the Dublin regulation.
The route along the E42 highway in western Belgium has emerged as a critical itinerary in this quest for a refuge yet to be found. The E42 route offers access to highway rest areas where people might try the “Cargo-Truck game”, attempting to hide within trucks in hopes of a passage to the UK or to France’s Opale Coast, where many pursue the “Boat game” to the UK.
The second and third nodes are concerned with these transitory dwelling spaces, hereinafter migration stations. To explore this I have conducted an itinerary-followed ethnography and series of life stories across key sites in Tournai, Lille, Calais and Grande-Synthe. These spaces, which span encampments, squats, and networks of respite houses are vital for understanding the migratory dwelling infrastructures emerging amidst pushbacks, suspension, dispersal. Understanding the forms through which these infrastructures are formed, eroded and reconfigured necessitates a holistic view of their interconnectedness. Thus, analysing these stations in isolation would obscure their role within this broader translocal framework. Hence, the need of linking node 2 and 3 into a sense of itinerary and route, rather than separated locations.

Researchers

I. Oubad

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