Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2025 14:36:22 +0200
From: Claire Rodier claire.rodier@free.fr
https://gh.copernicus.org/articles/80/95/2025/ <
https://gh.copernicus.org/articles/80/95/2025/>
Book review: Atlas des migrations dans le monde de Florent Chossière
Chossière, F.: Book review: Atlas des migrations dans le monde, Geogr.
Helv., 80, 95?97, https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-80-95-2025, 2025.
Migreurop: Atlas des migrations dans le monde. Libertés de circulation,
frontières, inégalités, Armand Colin, 160 pp., EUR 25.00, ISBN
978-2200632823, 2022.
Renewing our political imaginaries is the purpose of Atlas des migrations
dans le monde (Atlas of migration in the world), published by Migreurop, a
collective of researchers, activists, and NGO members, and edited by Sara
Casella Colombeau. After having edited three atlases focused on the
strengthening of mobility controls in Europe (Migreurop, 2009, 2012, 2017),
the collective adopts a new approach in this volume. Subtitled ?Libertés de
circulations, frontières, inégalités? (Freedom of movement, borders,
inequalities), it explores the theme of freedom of movement. Gathering
contributions from 89 authors, 54 thematic double-page spreads, and almost
100 illustrations (photos, maps, comic strips, drawings, and infographics),
the volume analyses various configurations that either facilitate or hinder
the movement of people, goods, services, and capital and the way they
reflect global asymmetries and social inequalities.
The polysemy of the notion is the starting point: ?freedom of movement?
serves as both an activist goal against deadly migration policies and a
foundational principle for regional organisations like the European Union
to codify the circulation of people and goods. The dual nature of freedom
of movement as an ideal to be achieved for some and an already existing
reality for others shows that, more than a global increase in control and
blockage of movement, we are currently witnessing the intensification of a
regime of what the authors frame as ?migratory apartheid?. Drawing from
numerous fields of social sciences and activist knowledge, as well as
paying particular attention to illustrations, this atlas is a precious tool
for disseminating critical approaches from migration studies to a wide
audience. This makes it a useful addition to academic summary works aimed
more at researchers, such as the Handbook on Critical Geographies of
Migration (Mitchell et al., 2020).
To do so, the book bases its contribution on a double perspective to
freedom of movement. The first is to investigate the temporalities, spaces,
actors, policies, and means that make circulation possible. This
investigation emphasises the inequalities on which regimes of free movement
are grounded, as well as how migrants exercise their own freedom of
movement. Moreover, it shows the utilitarian nature of most of these
projects, be they implemented for imperialist reasons, to achieve
geopolitical objectives, or for economic profit. The second perspective of
this exploration of regimes of free movement aims to open up new political
imaginaries by undermining the idea that there would be no alternative to
the current dominant discourse framing restrictive migration policies as
inevitable. Rather, the situations described in the volume invite readers
to repoliticize migration issues by accounting for the choices made,
showing that other choices are possible, and renewing their political
perspectives on the basis of past or present realities.
The first two sections, respectively dedicated to ?Historical forms? and
?Regional spaces? of freedom of movement, provide numerous examples of
free-movement configurations. Looking at several historical periods and
regional contexts reveals useful experiences for fuelling political
imaginaries. The volume reminds us, for instance, of the significance of
circulation in precolonial west Africa or among the First Nations in North
America. However, even at a time where border regimes were more open, the
possibility of movement was often precarious, as seen by the fragile
?freedom to travel? for Algerians to France during the colonial period,
marked by fluctuating control. The institutionalised migration of single
women from the United Kingdom to settler colonies, aimed at both reducing
the labour surplus in the UK and ensuring the reproduction of the
Anglo-Saxon race in the empire, further illustrates how organised forms of
movement were intertwined with gender, class, and race power relationships.
The early forms of thinking and institutionalising freedom of movement also
already contained a liberal economic objective: the 1868 Burlingame Treaty
between the United States and China recognised migration as an ?inalienable
right? but primarily to acknowledge the right to travel and trade,
legitimising the migration of American merchants to China and that of
Chinese workers to the United States.
As the second section emphasises, facilitating the movement of people is
rarely in itself the main objective of the organisations established since
the 1950s by states of the same region to formalise their cooperation on
free movement. Each regional space of free movement arises from specific
objectives, from developing common economic markets to serving as a
political declaration. For example, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the
Philippines have developed a powerful migration industry strongly
integrated into the development model of both labour-exporting and
labour-importing countries. Moreover, the institutionalisation of free
movement remains a way to control it, as it facilitates the circulation of
certain categories of people only, creating inequalities, sometimes even
within the agreements themselves. The use of biometrics to authenticate
migrants within the Economic Community of West African States illustrates
such ambiguities: while presented as a means of facilitating mobility
between member states, biometrics are also promoted and implemented by
private and international actors aiming at data interoperability and
exchange with European Union agencies, turning it into a new tool for
tracking migrants headed to Europe.
The third section investigates ?Free movement of goods, services, and
capital?, challenging the common distinction between the movement of people
and the movement of goods: the former is seen as highly restricted, while
the latter is perceived as free and fluid. This opposition overlooks people
who make the just-in-time circulation possible, such as low-paid migrant
workers or merchant sailors, often at the cost of poor living and working
conditions. Certainly, they access mobility, but an extremely limited and
subordinated one. The circulation of capital also reproduces global
inequalities and does not necessarily contribute to a better allocation of
financial resources at the international scale, as promoted by neoliberal
policies.
The fourth and fifth sections are the most original ones, as they propose
new perspectives on free movement. Section 4 investigates the autonomy of
migrants and solidarities as a freedom of movement in actuality, showing
how migrants ? and sometimes their supporters ? create various forms of
movement and installation ?from below? through their individual and
collective practices to counter restrictive migration policies and defy
borders. Various practices are documented, such as the establishment of
autonomous transnational social protection systems, the exchange of
annotated maps to plan border crossings, the organisation of migrant
caravans, or the attendance at community-based associations helping to
address socio-economic precariousness and difficulties in accessing
healthcare in the host country. This allows us to shift the normalised
perspectives on migration, moving away from the image of migrants as mere
victims in a state-centred framing towards reflections on freedom of
movement.
The closing section of the volume addresses ?Re/thinking freedom of
movement?. It unpacks the palimpsest that has led to the current common
definition of free movement as framed in international law, emphasising
both its liberal philosophical roots and the utilitarian and sedentary bias
in its approach by international organisations. However, this section also
provides alternative conceptions and imaginaries of free movement that put
forward demands for justice, equality, and dignity. For example, it
introduces various theoretical insights, such as anarchist or feminist and
queer approaches to circulation. But it also highlights existing practices
challenging the international legal order, as illustrated by the use of
indigenous passports to tackle the state monopoly on the means of
circulation and to promote a principle of free movement detached from
affiliation with a state territory.
Overall, this atlas stands apart from traditional atlases on migration or
borders, which aim mainly to provide data and information, taking a
descriptive approach to contemporary phenomena. Rather, the Atlas des
migrations dans le monde undertakes a vast analytical project of critical
reflection on migration; borders; circulation; and more broadly,
globalisation through its exploration of free movement. The richness of the
illustrations is remarkable, and they directly support the analytical
project. Not only do they incarnate the discourse through numerous
infographics representing individual trajectories, such as the life of
William Ellis through national and racial borders or that of Andrea
navigating against transphobia from Bogota to Paris, they also contribute
to bringing forth a counter-narrative about circulation by moving away from
the usual way of representing and thus thinking about it. This volume
constitutes a valuable tool for people eager to renew their vision of
global circulation and offers useful pedagogical material for teaching
critical approaches to migration or borders.
Geographers attentive to multiscalar thinking may find the local scale and
micro scale underrepresented. Yet the local scale has great heuristic
potential for thinking about inequalities of movement and for mirroring
?migratory apartheid?, with various spaces and places characterised by the
copresence of individuals subjected to unequal access to movement. For
example, analysis of control practices in tourist areas located in border
spaces emphasises how the differentiation between ?legitimate? and
?undesirable? foreign populations relies on class and race power
relationships (Bachellerie, 2020). Informal camps of illegalised migrants
in northern global cities, for their part, showcase these inequalities but
also provide a way of countering them. The visibility they ensure in urban
spaces can also serve as the ground for local political mobilisation or
speed up the actions of public actors towards those who live in these
camps, thus enabling them to go on with their journey (Piva, 2025). The
volume could also have given more space to privileged migration, a subject
that has recently received increasing academic attention (Duplan and
Cranston, 2023) and that offers another perspective to think about
inequalities. But this atlas’ contribution lies not so much in its
exhaustiveness as in its successful objective: to present some
thought-provoking case studies nourishing alternative political imaginaries.
Disclaimer
Publisher?s note: Copernicus Publications remains neutral with regard to
jurisdictional claims made in the text, published maps, institutional
affiliations, or any other geographical representation in this paper. While
Copernicus Publications makes every effort to include appropriate place
names, the final responsibility lies with the authors.
References
Bachellerie, S.: La traque policière des étranger·es à la frontière
franco-italienne (Hautes-Alpes) comme ?maintien de l’ordre? social et
racial, Rev. Geogr. Alp., 108, 2, https://doi.org/10.4000/rga.7208 <
https://doi.org/10.4000/rga.7208>, 2020.?
Duplan, K. and Cranston, S.: Towards geographies of privileged migration:
An intersectional perspective, Prog. Hum. Geog., 47, 333?347,
https://doi.org/10.1177⁄03091325231156927 <
https://doi.org/10.1177⁄03091325231156927>, 2023.?
Mitchell, K., Jones, R., and Fluri, J. L. (Eds.): Handbook on Critical
Geographies of Migration, Edward Elgar Publishing, 448 pp., ISBN
9781839109850, 2020.?
Migreurop: Atlas des migrants en Europe. Géographie critique des politiques
migratoires européennes, Armand Colin, Paris, 144 pp., ISBN 9782200354046,
2009.?
Migreurop: Atlas des migrants en Europe. Géographie critique des politiques
migratoires, Armand Colin, Paris, 144 pp., ISBN 9782200249663, 2012.?
Migreurop: Atlas des migrants en Europe. Approches critiques des politiques
migratoires, Armand Colin, Paris, 173 pp., ISBN 9782200616854, 2017.?
Piva, A.: De l’exil à l’errance. La présence des exilés dans les espaces
urbains de Paris et de Rome entre autonomie et contrôle, PhD thesis,
Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne ? Université Laval de Québec, 2025.?