This volume approaches the topic of mobility in Southeast Europe by offering the first detailed historical study of the land route connecting Istanbul with Belgrade. After this route that diagonally crosses Southeast Europe had been established in Roman times, it was as important for the Byzantines as the Ottomans to rule their Balkan territories. In the nineteenth century, the road was upgraded to a railroad and, most recently, to a motorway. The contributions in this volume focus on the period from the Middle Ages to the present day. They explore the various transformations of the route as well as its transformative role for the cities and regions along its course. This not only concerns the political function of the route to project the power of the successive empires. Also the historical actors such as merchants, travelling diplomats, Turkish guest workers or Middle Eastern refugees together with the various social, economic and cultural effects of their mobility are in the focus of attention. The overall aim is to gain a deeper understanding of Southeast Europe by foregrounding historical continuities and disruptions from a long-term perspective and by bringing into dialogue different national and regional approaches.

This book is an ethnography of the people migrating through the Balkan route and the reaction of the local communities who witnessed their struggle to reach the European Union. Based on extensive fieldwork conducted in North Macedonia and Serbia, it pays special attention to the "refugee crisis", that gave birth to a new border regime based on a permanent suspension of laws, normalisation of violence, and the entrapment of migrants stranded in a liminal space at the gates to the EU, neither able to go further nor back. The book will appeal to an international audience of academics of migration studies, social and political science, and the wider public interested in migration and social and political changes in Southeast Europe.

Contributing to our understanding of the impact of the 2015 migrant “crisis” on the future of EU integration, this book views the “crisis” as an accelerant to existing problems, namely Brexit, the growing popularity of anti-immigrant far right parties and the rise of xenophobic and antiliberal governments from the Baltics to the Balkans. Providing analysis at the national, regional level and EU level, this book shows how the countries on the migrant route have been affected according to their degree of integration with the EU and the specific socio-political and economic conditions of each country. The volume will be of interest to scholars or international relations, security studies, border studies, EU policies, migration studies and Southeast European studies.

"This book is an ethnography of the people migrating through the Balkan route and the reaction of the local communities who witnessed their struggle to reach the European Union. Based on extensive fieldwork conducted in North Macedonia and Serbia, it pays special attention to the "refugee crisis", that gave birth to a new border regime based on a permanent suspension of laws, normalisation of violence, and the entrapment of migrants stranded in a liminal space at the gates to the EU, neither able to go further nor back. The book will appeal to an international audience of academics of migration studies, social and political science, and the wider public interested in migration and social and political changes in Southeast Europe"--

Despite all efforts to create a political union capable of improving European citizens’ quality of life, there are several barriers to the European Union’s (EU) expansion to the Balkan Region. The EU enlargement and expansion to the Balkan Region is one of the Union’s greatest challenges and political objectives in recent years. In the turmoil of economic, social, and sanitarian crises, where is the space to debate the enlargement of the EU? Challenges and Barriers to the European Union Expansion to the Balkan Region presents the EU’s structure, the process of enlargement, and the challenges related to the Balkan region. This book addresses critical issues and challenges in the EU and the emerging trends for the EU’s future. Covering topics such as enlargement policy, integration, NATO, and political challenges, this book is a valuable resource for post-grad students of political science and international affairs, faculty of higher education, researchers, academicians, politicians, world leaders, and policymakers.

This volume addresses the mass arrival of migrants and refugees in Europe in 2015 and 2016, and the crisis of response that unfolded across the continent. The chapters critically discuss this crisis and help the reader to understand why the refugees and migrants fled, what kind of response they faced and what was wrong with the reactions of the states. Despite the fact that all the authors are based in Slovenia, the volume transcends this particular state and covers theoretical and practical aspects of the crisis which are not geographically limited to only one country or region. It addresses a variety of audiences, such as students, researchers, sociologists, political scientists, lawyers, geographers and philosophers, and will appeal to those who seek to understand forced migration and refugee protection, states’ responses to migration and asylum seekers, and the rise of hate speech, racism, xenophobia and authoritarianism in Europe.

Le migrazioni sono un tragico tema del nostro presente. Secondo stime diramate da UNHCR pi� di 65 milioni di persone al mondo sono profughi. Uomini donne e bambini costretti ad abbandonare le loro case a causa di guerre, dittature, scontri etnici e religiosi, carestie e persecuzioni.Pi� del 40% di essi sono bambini e vederli con i tuoi occhi stringe il cuore perch� potrebbero essere i tuoi figli. Hanno abiti laceri, piedi scalzi e feriti a causa delle marce forzate nei boschi che li portano dall'Asia o dal Medioriente verso le porte dell'Europa.Un'Europa sorda alle loro urla, chiusa ed egoista, che costruisce nuovi Muri.Grazie al supporto logistico di MSF, abbiamo raggiunto tutti i punti nevralgici e abbiamo svolto inchieste esclusive.Le nostre tappe hanno seguito la rotta dei migranti: Lesbos, Atene, Idomeni, Skopje, Belgrado, Subotica, Budapest, Zagreb e infine Gorizia, zona di confine tra Slovenia e Italia.Ci siamo dati il tempo che serve, senza correre dietro la notizia ma approfondendo le questioni o i casi umani che non si trovano sui giornali e nei programmi televisivi.Abbiamo consumato le scarpe seconde le buone vecchie regole del giornalismo. Abbiamo scoperto cose che non avremmo mai voluto sentire: torture, rapimenti, violenze di ogni tipo sono una triste normalit� tra i profughi in viaggio. Ma per scoprirlo bisogna aspettare, stare con loro, attendere che i pi� vulnerabili abbiano fiducia e si aprano a confidenze indicibili."Questo viaggio � come la passione di Cristo" dice un profugo tamil incontrato nell'Afghan Park di Belgrado.