Mobilizing within Transnational Contentious Communities? Exploring Multi-Scalar Refugee Activism in Berlin, Germany

The last decade has witnessed a rapid proliferation of political activism by refugees in many European countries. Since 2012, in Germany, previously scattered protest events have become increasingly tied together in a social movement with hubs in various urban centres. While being strongly rooted locally, activists have engaged in multi-scalar activism protesting simultaneously against particular features of the German asylum system (e.g. encampment, work bans and mobility restrictions), the Europeanized politics of exclusion and closure (Frontex, Dublin regulations) and the responsibility of the Global North in the production of root causes of forced migration (colonialism, resource exploitation, cooperation with authoritarian regimes). These mobilizations are puzzling given the fact that dominant theories have considered refugees as unlikely subjects of mobilization due to legal obstacles (including ‘deportability’), limited economic and social capital and closed political and discursive opportunities. Transnational activism was regarded even more unlikely due to the additional obstacles of cross-border mobilizations.