Acts/Crimes of solidarity: an ethnographic study of illegalisation and criminalisation amongst pro-migration activists and other citizens

As irregular migration into Europe remains at the centre of heated political debates, 'citizens' (including charity workers, activists, volunteers etc.) who provide help to 'irregular migrants' increasingly face intimidation, repression and prosecution from state authorities. There has been a rise in high-profile cases such as French farmer Herrou sentenced to prison for facilitating irregular entry at the French-Italian border, and Spanish activist Helena Maleno, accused by both Spain and Morocco of smuggling migrants. The activities for which individuals (and organizations) can be prosecuted are diverse and whether such activities are criminal is often contested: giving a lift to migrants, providing food or shelter, preventing a plane used for deportation from taking off, helping migrants to cross borders without documents, rescuing people at sea etc. Activists have coined the term 'crimes of solidarity', arguing that repressive legislations have been deployed not only to sanction criminals (e.g. 'smugglers') who benefit financially, but also to potentially sanction anyone providing help and relief to migrants, in defiance of international norms of human rights.

This study explores these illegalisation and criminalisation processes amongst volunteers, activists, practitioners and other citizens in Morocco and France, where Civil Society Organisations have denounced state repression against migrants trying to cross the sea to continue their journeys and those providing assistance to them. It brings to the fore the shifting boundaries between 'citizens' and 'irregular migrants' and debates over solidarity and illegality. Whilst scholars have increasingly paid attention to the production of illegality amongst migrants, there has been little work on how such processes also affect the political agency and subjectivity of citizens. The study will address this gap by generating qualitative data on how citizens are subjected to and navigate illegalisation and criminalisation processes. It examines these processes in a European country (France) and one of its partners in the Global South (Morocco) for the 'management of migration'. This comparative approach enables to further highlight how hostile migration politics are entangled with a range of connections across Africa and Europe and competing discourses over values such as solidarity. To address the methodological and ethical issues which emerge from researching such politically contentious matters, this ethnographic study will combine participant-observation and interviews with visual methods to generate outputs with transformative power.

Co-designed and co-delivered with civil society partners to ensure cross-sector relevance, the project includes two Knowledge Exchange and Impact events (in France and in Morocco) to bring together practitioners, activists, researchers, artists and policy-makers. These events will foster wider cross-sector collaborations through the sharing of best practice and solutions to the criminalisation of solidarity towards migrants. The KEI events will include the launch of country-specific policy briefs about: the legal framework and risks faced by activists; testimonials and evidence-based policy recommendations on practices and policies. The policy briefs will be aimed to relevant state bodies and decision-makers and other research users in France, Morocco and beyond. The project will also entail one international workshop in Manchester with delegates from across and beyond academia to share findings and responses to the criminalisation of acts of solidarity towards irregular migrants in Europe and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Creative outputs (e.g. photographs, videos) generated through the use of visual methods will result in a touring exhibition organised with a curator to increase awareness and understanding of migration issues and criminalisation processes amongst the general public in Morocco, France and beyond.

Planned Impact
The project aims to directly impact the lives of activists and other citizens (e.g. volunteers, practitioners) facing repression, intimidation and prosecution for providing assistance to migrants considered illegal by state authorities in Morocco and France. It is also relevant to other contexts of 'crimes of solidarity' across Europe (e.g. Italy, UK) and the MENA region (e.g. Algeria, Tunisia). Co-designed and co-delivered with Project Partners in Morocco and France (GADEM and PSMigrants), the project will impact direct beneficiaries (i.e. individuals and organisations directly involved in the project) and indirect beneficiaries (those not directly involved in the project's activities but who will benefit from outcomes) in France, Morocco and beyond.

1. ACTIVISTS, PRACTITIONERS, VOLUNTEERS AND OTHER CITIZENS PROVIDING SUPPORT TO 'IRREGULAR MIGRANTS'. By providing accessible and multilingual (French, Arabic and English) information about policies and practices, the policy briefs will enhance capacity, knowledge and access to rights amongst those under risks of prosecution for providing assistance to 'irregular' migrants (including local and national organisations such as CIMADE, ATTAC Maroc and activists from beyond France and Morocco such as British citizens around Calais). The touring and online exhibition, linked to other local cultural events about migration (e.g. Migrant'Scène festival in Morocco), will improve awareness and understanding of issues affecting volunteers and activists amongst the general publics in France, Morocco and beyond as irregular migration continues to feature prominently in public debates.

2. CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS (INCLUDING RESEARCH PARTNERS) WORKING ON MIGRATION. Project Partner CSOs will benefit directly from the enhancement of their organisational culture and research and advocacy capacity through the co-design and co-delivery of the research project. The study will increase their capacity to support and guide their staff, volunteers and associated professionals in navigating migration policies through the sharing of best practice and knowledge exchange during the two KEI events and the international workshop. More generally, local and national CSOs in Morocco and France (e.g. Caritas, Red Cross, Care4Calais, AMDH, France Terre d' Asile) and in similar contexts in Europe and the MENA region, will benefit in the long-term (beyond the project life-cycle) from enhanced research and advocacy capacity through the dissemination of the policy briefs and the cross-sector special issue via the website, Project Partners' networks across Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and the PI's contacts through other UKRI-GCRF funded research projects on migration in Morocco and the wider Maghreb region.

3. POLICY AND OTHER DECISION-MAKERS. There is a gap in research evidence exploring how migration politics target and affect not just migrants but also citizens. This project's results will benefit relevant policy-makers and state bodies in France and Morocco (i.e. Parliamentary working groups on migration and Ministries of Justice, Interior and of Migration), international institutions with a presence in France and Morocco (e.g. IOM and UNHCR), and institutions beyond the two countries (African Union, European Union Commission, and in the United Kingdom the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Home Office, and All-Party Parliamentary Group on migration and refugees) will benefit from multilingual, up-to-date, evidence-based research findings (in the form of country-specific policy briefs) to inform changes in practice, policy, and legislation (i.e. on assistance to irregular migration) at local, national, and transnational levels (including in border regions with third-countries such as the French-English border).