The “Dublinings”: an anthropological inquiry into the lifeworlds of those who crossed European borders

Gianmarco Marzola, PhD Candidate in Cultural Anthropology
Instituto de Ciências Sociais – Universidade de Lisboa
ORCID: 0000-0002-5608-726X

Abstract: The phenomenon of asylum seekers and refugees who abandon reception facilities trying to reach irregularly the “greener pastures” of other European countries has been largely recorded in Mediterranean Europe. Borders such as Idomeni, Brenner and Ventimiglia, to mention just a few, have become idiomatic of the ongoing “migration crisis”, gaining international attention. The neologism dublinanti, Italian present participle “dublinings”, refers to the enforcement of the Dublin regulations. It portrays those migrants who were caught in other countries holding an Italian residence permit and who have been escorted by the police back to the “country of first arrival. A similar phenomenon is happening also in Portugal where it is known as the case of “retomados”, asylum seekers and refugees re-taken in charge by state
reception programmes after having disappeared from the national territory heading to Northern Europe. My research inquiries into these migrants’ life stories to see the effect that the European border Regime and the internal border regulations have on migrants bodies and persons. From a henomenological perspective, I analyse how the frontier becomes embodied and turns structurally into part of the identity of the migrant person struggling for spatial mobility and social recognition.

Biographic Note: Gianmarco Marzola is an anthropology scholar researching in
Europe and the Middle East whose work focuses on politics, religion and migration. He has been working among refugees and asylum seekers in Germany, Italy and Portugal; volunteering in informal settlements and movements, and serving as NGO professional during humanitarian operations. He has recently published the ethnographic short tale “Mariam” about his fieldwork in Chiara Pussetti, Humberto Martins, Paulo Mendes (eds.) 2023 Exercícios de Antropologia Narrativa. Lisbon: Edições Colibri.