Walling the Balkan Route

This article investigates the geography of border walls along the Balkan Route, which is the main overland migration corridor into Europe. Although the route became prominent during the ’long summer of migration’ in 2015, it has been used for decades for informal migration. In response to the growing number of irregularised people-on-the-move, some countries have built border walls, which have significantly affected the geography of the route. Nevertheless, such mobility persists, with migrants continually resorting to new micro-routes, detours, and informal support networks. Drawing on political geography and border studies literature which conceptualises the Balkan Route as a distinct spatial formation, the article incorporates interviews with migrants and humanitarian workers to analyse how border walls function as immunitarian technologies aimed at filtering and deterring, but not stopping, migrant mobility. The article also reflects on the walls’ symbolic, material, and strategic dimensions; their porosity; and the counter-geographies of resistance that emerge in response.