subjects'. Activists as well as academics should take seriously the ways in which
migrants and their movement across borders are internal to and agents of the
profound changes that the sovereign power, citizenship and political agency itself
are undergoing (Andrijasevic, 2008b: 12).
In Lesvos it was possible to appreciate the energy liberated in the space of the
No Border camp as a very mundane space of encounter between migrants and
non-migrants. At the same time one should honestly acknowledge the
within the hierarchy of
materiality of the different social positionalities
mobilities created by the £U migration regime. The migrant women in the open
centre were not necessarily interested in the 'political activity1 of the campists.
However, the communication developed between them and the European women
in that context can be interpreted as a mutual exchange between the activists
(and researchers) curious to understand the trajectories of migrants, and the
migrant women who approached the activists as a source of knowledge to learn
about life, possibilities of work and education in Europe. Still, many migrant
women remained resistant to narrating their own stories, their past migratory
paths ... This should pose the question of why for lus' is it so important to know
about lthemJ?We may start fromthe acknowledgement of our different'locations'
to trace new maps of relationality, complicity and common struggles.
author biography
Gabriella Alberti is a PhD student in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff
University. Her research project is on 'The gendered dimension of transnational
mobility and temporariness: emerging subjectivities of migrant women in
London's hospitality sector'.
references
Andrijasevic,R. (2006) 'Lampedusa in focus: migrantscaught between the Libyandesert and the
deep Sea' FeministReview, Vol. 82: 120-125.
Andrijasevic,R. (2008a) 'Gendered migrationand differentiatedinclusion' Re-public. http://www
. re-public.gr/en/?p=470. html, accessed 30 September 2009.
Andrijasevic, R. (2008b) lDa eccezione a eccesso: detenzione e deportazioni nello spazio del
Mediterrâneo'Rassegna di dirittopubblico europeo, Vol. VII, No. 1: 251-271.
De Génova, N. (2002) 'Migrant "Illegality" and deportability in everyday life' Annual Review of
Anthropology,31: 419-447.
De Lauretis, T. (1987) Technologiesof Gender. Essays on Theory,Film, and Fiction, Houndmillsand
London: Macmillan Press.
EC (2008) Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on Common Standards and
nationals (as published
Proceduresin MemberStates for returningillegallystayingthird-country
in the official JournalL348 of 24.12.2008).
HRW-Human RightsWatch (2008) Stuck in a RevolvingDoor. Iraqis and OtherAsylumSeekers and
Entrance to the European Union, November2008.
Migrantsat the Greece/Turkey
146
feminist
review
94
2010
of Lesvos
acrosstheborders
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6 These reflections
emerged in
conversationwith
Êrene Kaptani, an
activist and
practitionerworking
withmigrantminors
detained in Lesvos.
The conversation
occurred at a
private meetingin
London,KingsCross
on 20 September
2009 followingthe
No Bordercamp.