Mountain as an Ambivalent Transit Zone: Facing the Battleground of the Alpine Border Crossing

Filippo Torre

Journal of Borderlands Studies, 2024, vol. 39, issue 4, 637-655

Abstract: Through ethnographic research carried out in the Alpine border zone between Italy and France, this contribution analyses the ambivalent usages and meanings of the Alpine environment in the conflict between border policies and intra-EU irregular migration. This article identifies how the morphological characteristics of the landscape can be mobilized with conflicting purposes, and explains how the geophysical elements of space can define and diversify irregular mobility patterns and crossing conditions. To grasp the complexity of border struggles, Alpine migrant mobility conflicts are divided into three intertwined and contentious political arenas, namely networks of solidarity, mountain trails patrol and, finally, means of transport. This article builds on the awareness that the ambivalence concerning natural settings remains understudied, at the risk of assuming a universal effect of the environmental dimension on migrant journeys.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1080/08865655.2023.2183425

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