Refugees Traversing Borders: An act of Civil Disobedience
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14600/irpps_wps.97.2017Keywords:
Civil disobedience, European asylum policy, asylum seekers, political agencyAbstract
On the 4th of September 2015, asylum seekers who had been stranded in Hungary’s Keleti train station started marching on foot towards the Austrian border under live media coverage. Their aim was to show to the world that they do not accept their predicament and demand passage to Germany and Sweden. How should we understand the march of the refugees and the events surrounding it? In what ways has the march altered the European public’s perception of asylum seekers and the institutions that govern European asylum policy? This article argues that the march of refugees can be characterized as an act of civil disobedience. It aims to show that asylum seekers, with the help of European institutions and activist European citizens, have emerged as novel political agents instigating change in the European political landscape.References
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