Navigating and Negotiating the City: Irregular Migrants Experiences with Borderscapes in Madrid, Spain

• Main Author: Laura Vásquez-Roa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá) 2018-07-01
• Series: Antípoda: Revista de Antropología y Arqueología
• Subjects: Author: Borderscapes; internal borders; irregular migration; Madrid-Spain; multi-ethnic cities; navigating the city
• Online Access: https://revistas.uniandes.edu.co/doi/full/10.7440/antipoda32.2018.04

Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this paper investigates the borderscaping processes that irregular migrants face as well as their living conditions in Madrid. It aims to study how internal borders/social boundaries are constructed in the city as irregular migrants live their lives, and how they deal with work, life, access to healthcare, etc., in a borderscapes context that is present in everyday life. In doing so, this paper highlights the practices which irregular migrants use to overcome borderscapes in an urban context of precariousness while they employ different tactics to successfully negotiate and give meaning to the urban space. This paper provides an insight into how, through explicit ways of challenging borders, such as activism, or subtler ways, by just using the public space, irregular migrants are fighting for their place in Madrid. Finally, this study is a contribution to the academic literature on the relation between irregular migration and its impact on multi-ethnic cities.