Emergency mobilities and emergency governance: from COVID-19 pandemics to the war in Ukraine

Abstract

Specific forms of mobilities and immobilities, at multiple scales, through multiple modes (on foot, by ship etc.), and through differing agencies (ordered/mandatory, organized, voluntary, coerced etc.) can occur in and through emergency situations (Adey 2016). Emergencies are as a rule exceptional events but they also ‘produce’ new emergencies through mobility, which may turn into long-term and even chronic forms of crisis. As soon as critical phase of the COVID-19-related compulsory immobility ended, Russia conducted full-scale aggression against Ukraine dragging behind the biggest forced migration wave in Europe since 1945. Perhaps less salient, yet equally traumatic, are forced (im)mobilities stimulated by climate changes, as well as wars and political repressions in countries like Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Belarus or Russia. Crises usually hit stronger migrant communities, yet some groups are better placed to survive the emergencies than others. The most typical reaction of destination states to the uncertainties of mass displacement are return to national solutions, improvisation and experiments, and often ignorance and securitisation. Yet, novel solidarity-based methods of coping with crises are also possible, in particular at the level of civil society and other non-state actors, and in the transnational context (Heller 2021). In those new continuances, the ‘traditional’ forced migration approach may overlook a perspective of migrants who struggle in the emergency context perhaps between different kinds of movement and stasis, but also the fluid and often informal states policies and practices that react to this mobility, and shape different forms of temporality and inequality (Cresswell, 2011; Gill et al., 2011). Therefore, strong cross-fertilization between migration research and mobility studies, emergency governance, and studies on non-state approaches to crisis, is highly required especially in order to explore how emergencies are being lived and experienced by individuals affected. New perspectives are needed to study if and how new social solidarity mechanisms are being created. Also, critical reflections on forced migration studies may offer a more comprehensive explanation about the transnational nature of contemporary states. The panel invites contributions representing different disciplines, both theoretical and empirical, focusing on different regions (yet studies on war on Ukraine are particularly welcomed) who are researching how mobilities are managed and lived at multiple scales through emergency governance contexts and conditions.

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