"Camp Geographies of the Balkan Route" session at the International Geographical Congress Political Geography Pre-Conference

On August 23, 2024, Claudio Minca, Dragan Umek, Valeria Raimondi, and Yolanda Weima presented research on “Camp Geographies of the Balkan Route” in a special session during the International Geography Congress (IGC), Commission on Political Geography “pre conference,” in Belfast. The session was chaired by Professor Anna Casaglia of the University of Trento. 

Claudio Minca opened the session by introducing the aims and scope of the TheGAME research project. He then presented on the “Trieste endgame and the politics of the ban along the Balkan Route,” based on extensive and ongoing ethnographic research in Trieste. The second presenter, Valeria Raimondi, shared findings on the constantly evolving asylum reception geographies of mainland Greece, and the ways changes in this camp archipelago shapes refugee lives and onward im/mobilities. 

For his presentation, entitled “The Rise and Fall of Refugee Counter-Geographies in Northern Serbia,” Dragan Umek drew on several years of research on camp geographies in Serbia. He included recent research on dramatic changes to both the formal and makeshift camp landscapes in northern Serbia. Yolanda Weima concluded the session by drawing together themes and examples introduced by the preceding presenters. Her presentation addressed “The Geopolitics and Biopolitics of Camp Openings and Closures in the Balkan Route.” She reflected on how camp locations and management both shape and are shaped by the route, in different ways across the route at different times. 

The session took place in the Canada Room of the Lanyon building, Queen’s University Belfast.

All four researchers attended the entirety of the conference, from August 22-24, the theme of which was “Celebrating a World of Political Difference.” This political geography conference immediately preceded the International Geographical Congress, held, this year, in Dublin.