Humanitarka and Distro: Reflexive Contributions from the Regime of Irregular Migration

Abstract

This article presents a reflection on the research into the European irregular migration regime based on my humanitarian and activist work in a context where violence is normalized on the periphery of the European Union. My approach to vernacular humanitarianism from below is ethnographic in nature, combining my (artistic, non-institutional) work in a ghettoized Zagreb Roma settlement with my pro-migrant volunteer engagement in the Una-Sana Canton in Bosnia and Herzegovina (within a scholarly, institutional framework). I adopt a critical approach to humanitarianism, seeing it as both a moment of desubjectivization and an essential step in broader socially inclusive processes. The context of criminalizing solidarity meant that the research practice included navigating through methodologically unpredictable situations, such as fluid, slippery, layered positioning, identity gray zones, disciplinary and normative liminality. I see the resulting ambivalences as part of an open research process indistinguishable from my own everyday life penetrated by the migration regime.

Keywords: regime of irregular migration, reflexivity, positioning, criminalization of solidarity, the humanitarian underground