2015 has not only seen a mass flight movement but also an explosion of helping hands of various kinds, by migrant networks, spontaneous volunteers, civil associations, local NGOs, and so forth mitigating the unfolding ‘migration reception crisis’. A conspicuous body of research focusing on such grassroots responses to mass migration, the role of volunteers and activism has been emerging since (Feischmidt at al., 2018; McGee & Pelham, 2018; Rozakou, 2017; Sandri, 2017; Sutter, 2020). This literature has emphasized important aspects of the broad migration receiving apparatus, which is not only constituted by governmental and inter-governmental actors but also by these practices of humanitarianism from below producing highly ambivalent and complex assemblage of power, hierarchies and moral entanglements.
The papers in this special issue illustrate the complexities of finding the right vocabulary— both descriptive and analytical—to explain how people living across Europe have responded to the recent shifts in the EU border regime. This thematic issue contributes to the ongoing lively debates on the relationship between humanitarianism, solidarity, and human rights in Europe. It does so by approaching the concept of ‘grassroots’ critically and from an ethnographic perspective.
Table of Contents
Editorial
Grassroots responses to mass migration in Europe: Introduction
by Čarna Brković, Antonio De Lauri, and Sabine Hess
Grassroots responses to mass migration in Europe
The temporality of humanitarianism: Provincializing everyday volunteer practices at European borders
by Synnøve Kristine Nepstad Bendixsen and Marie Sandberg
by Lieke van der Veer
Between supporting and reporting: Grassroots textual responses to the pushbacks at the fringes of EU
by Marijana Hameršak
by Edgar Córdova Morales
Research Note
Mapping the field of turbulent changes around the issue of migration in Poland
by Grzegorz Piotrowski
Book Review
by Ildikó Zakariás
Articles
by Vera Messing and Bence Ságvári
by Sławomir Czech and Maciej Kassner
The Human embryo: Mapping patients’ ethical decisions in Hungary
by Lilla Vicsek, Judit Sándor, and Zsófia Bauer
Intersections. East European Journal of Society and Politics (Intersections.EEJSP) is a peer-reviewed, open access journal focusing on social sciences (broadly understood) and promoting comparative thinking on Eastern and Central European societies in a global context. Founded by the Centre for Social Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and published currently by Centre for Social Sciences in Budapest, Intersections.EEJSP provides an international forum for scholars coming from and/or working on the region.