A review of Robert Rydzewski’s book The Balkan Route – Hope, Migration and Europeanisation in Liminal Spaces appeared in the journal COMPSEES – Comparative Southeast European Studies. This political ethnography documents and analyzes migrant movements and the obstacles they face on their way to safety. Rydzewski’s book critically examines the intersection of migration, securitization, and human experience in liminal spaces, highlighting how state and societal violence—exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic—has become normalized at European borders.
Another review of the book The Balkan Route: A Glossary of the European Regime of Irregularized Migration on the EU Periphery, edited by Marijana Hameršak, Iva Pleše, and Tea Škokić from the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, was published in the journal Etnološka tribina. This book offers an engaged analysis of key concepts related to contemporary migration regimes, borders, and displacement, as well as resistance to these regimes. Through 22 concepts, examined from various perspectives, the book explores how migration policies are shaped and implemented on the periphery of the European Union, with a focus on control, discipline, and the criminalization of migrants.
Both books exemplify social responsibility, empathy, and ethics within academia by rejecting the dehumanization, deaths, and disappearances of migrants caused by migration regimes.
