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Transnational Mobility and Externalization of EU Borders: Social Work, Migration Management and Resistance addresses the topics of social work and international migration, with specific focus on the consequences of EU border externalization policies. The increasingly authoritarian character of EU border management raises a number of issues related to the role of social work within a context that is heavily charged, both ideologically and politically. After theoretically and historically contextualizing externalization with explicit attention to (neo)colonial genealogies of the current migration regimes, this book examines the complex inter-relations of social workers with key actors, namely mobile people, policy makers or funders. Particular attention is paid to the socio-economic and political impacts of the global Covid-19 pandemic on social work with variously categorized people moving across borders or immobilized incamps. Finally, the book explores how social workers and refugees resist violent migration controls and increasing criminalization of cross-border movements. This volume brings together contributions located in the so-called countries of origin and transit targeted by EU externalization interventions, as well as EU countries, in which social workers deal with the effects of border externalization and internalization.

The Greek island of Lesvos is frequently the subject of news reports on the refugee ‘crisis', but they only occasionally focus on the dire living conditions of asylum seekers already present on the island. Through direct experience as an activist in Lesvos refugee camps and detention centres, Iliadou gives voice to those with lived experiences of state violence. The author considers the escalation of EU border regime and deterrence policies seen in the past decade alongside their present impacts. Asking why the social harm and suffering border crossers experience is normalized and rendered invisible, the book highlights the collective, global responsibility for safeguarding refugees'human rights.