Dr. İbrahim Emre Yanık’s dissertation deeply examines the experiences of migrants stranded in prolonged transit due to the intensifying securitization of the European border regime (externalized controls, digital surveillance). The study reveals that these deterrence policies, contrary to their aim, produce new forms of precarity, immobilization, and liminal existence. Focusing specifically on Istanbul as a key site of transit and containment, the research analyzes how migrants navigate conditions of legal uncertainty, economic marginalization, and social isolation while resisting the structural constraints imposed upon them.
Drawing on a qualitative methodology, including semi-structured interviews and participant observation in Istanbul, the fieldwork centers migrants’ voices. Dr. İbrahim Emre Yanık conceptualizes migrants not as passive victims of border regimes but as active agents who engage in creative forms of survival, resistance, and the cultivation of solidarity networks. These forms of resistance include informal labor practices, knowledge-sharing networks, and mutual aid communities. The dissertation defines these collective practices as a state of "social excess," which exceeds and subverts state-imposed limits.
Central to the study is the notion of prolonged liminality, a condition in which migrants remain suspended between departure and destination, caught in spaces of extended waiting and strategic uncertainty. As transit becomes an enduring reality, migrants experience being "terminally stranded"—unable to move forward or return. This continuous suspension creates profound psychological and social consequences for their evolving identities, aspirations, and relationships to time and place. Dr. İbrahim Emre Yanık’s work ultimately calls for a fundamental rethinking of migration policy—one that acknowledges migrants’ rights to mobility and dignity, attends to the ignored consequences of border securitization, and fosters frameworks for more just global cooperation.
