Nikos Xypolytas: Refugees’ Collective Action in Lesvos, Greece (2015-2020)
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Lecture Series FORCED MIGRATION
11. November 2026, 16:15-17:45 Uhr
online
Nikos Xypolytas (University of the Aegean)
Refugees’ Collective Action in Lesvos, Greece (2015-2020) [EN]
The lecture will present the findings of a research on refugee collective action in Lesvos, Greece from 2015-2020. It focuses theoretically on the shortcomings of the academic community when approaching this topic. Empirically, utilising qualitative research, it emphasises the opportunities and limitations that refugees are confronted with in the context of collectively expressing their demands.
This lecture examines how migration becomes entangled with geopolitical conflicts, interstate relations, and strategies of political pressure. With particular attention to Europe’s southern and Mediterranean borders, it considers how migrants and refugees become positioned within wider struggles over sovereignty, border security, and European migration governance.
The lecture also explores how the language of “instrumentalisation” shapes political and institutional responses to migration and how this framing affects people seeking protection.
Moderation: Prof. Dr. Kira Kosnick (Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION)
Bitte melden Sie sich hier einmalig für alle Online-Veranstaltungen der Ringvorlesung „Forced Migration“ an:
https://forms.europa-uni.de/form/alias/EUV/forced-migration-lecture-series/
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FORCED MIGRATION – Lecture Series, Winter Semester 2026/2027
The lecture series is organised by the Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION and brings together interdisciplinary perspectives on forced migration, borders, asylum, and refugee reception. It examines how experiences of displacement are shaped by immigration and asylum regimes, legal insecurity, racialisation, gendered and intersectional inequalities, and changing infrastructures of border control and reception.
Combining theoretical debate with empirical research and perspectives from policy, activism, and practice, the series addresses border externalisation and violence, differentiated forms of vulnerability and protection, refugee agency and collective action, and the everyday negotiation of institutional constraints. It also considers questions of local reception, participation, and support, connecting wider debates on European migration governance with experiences and practices in specific national and local contexts.