Open Lecture: Does the Migrant Cause Exist?

In the wake of the so-called refugee crisis in Europe in 2015, a number of civil society based organisations have emerged, responding the lack of commitment by states to assist refugees in need. These responses operate on a voluntary basis, are often spontaneous and free of bureaucratic structures. The question we address in this seminar is to what degree we may see this as a kind of ‘political moment’, defying and challenging mainstream management of refugees, or whether in fact this is merely another humanitarian response to ‘suffering bodies’, thereby reifying the construction of the crisis as purely humanitarian and hence non-political.

The lecture will be followed by responses from: Nils Holtug (AMIS, UCPH), Lene Bull Christiansen (RUC) and Devike Sharma (UCPH).

Michel Agier is an ethnologist and anthropologist at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement et École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris.