42e séminaire – Jeudi 9 avril 2026 – 11h-13h (GMT+2)

Séminaire mensuel MOVIDA
“Régimes migratoires et production de catégories numériques des mobilités entre le Maghreb et l’Europe”
Jeudi 9 avril 2026 -11h à 13h (heure de France, GMT +2)
Lorenzo Ghione (postdoctoral researcher, URMIS)
Viola De Franco (PhD researcher in Migration Studies, Université Côte d’Azur – URMIS ; Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Fellow, EuroMedMig)
Lorenzo Ghione (postdoctoral researcher, URMIS) :The politics of IOM-led returns in Tunisia: between EU externalisation and authoritarian regime-making
This article examines return governance in the Mediterranean through the case of IOM-led, EU-funded Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) from Tunisia. It argues that AVRR functions as a coercive return mechanism, providing a humanitarian veneer for the EU’s externalisation agenda while reinforcing President Saïed’s authoritarian rule. Based on interviews and primary sources, the paper traces the post-2023 expansion of AVRR operations. For the EU, AVRR obscures cooperation with an increasingly repressive regime by diverting attention from more overtly violent practices. For the Tunisian authorities, it enables the removal of irregular Sub-Saharan migrants, framed as threats to national security and identity, while reinforcing domestic legitimacy through humanitarian and sovereign narratives. The shift from obstruction to strategic use of AVRR is sustained by reducing IOM’s visibility and increasing the Tunisian Red Crescent’s. The article conceptualises AVRR as a relational device through which power circulates between actors, challenging simplistic North–South asymmetries and highlighting the role of migration governance in processes of authoritarian regime-making.
Viola De Franco (PhD researcher in Migration Studies, Université Côte d’Azur – URMIS ; Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Fellow, EuroMedMig) : Digital Migration Imaginaries and Platformed Moral Economies between Morocco and Europe
This project examines how migration operates as a contested category across digital platforms rather than a stable social reality. Drawing on exploratory fieldwork in Morocco and a qualitative analysis of TikTok, it starts from an empirical puzzle. While “migration” is widely used in institutional discourse, individuals rarely identify with this term in everyday and digital contexts. Instead, they mobilise alternative labels such as l’ghorba, haraga, zmagria, gawri, or expat, each carrying distinct social and moral meanings. The study investigates how different regimes of classification coexist and interact on TikTok across three levels: platform classifications (algorithmic curation), user-generated classifications (hashtags), and audience interpretations. It argues that these regimes are structurally misaligned. Rather than passively reflecting platform logics, users strategically navigate visibility through selective uses of categories, while audiences reinterpret them within their own social frameworks. It contributes to debates on migration categories, digital classification, and platform governance, and ultimately reframes migration as a category continuously constructed through everyday digital practices.
Lien Zoom
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https://univ-amufr.zoom.us/j/84279111696?pwd=DLK40cGPDd3GixLVEA1mKS2cImZeAn.1
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ID de réunion : 842 7911 1696
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Code secret : 037340
Coordination
- Sabina Barone (sabina.barone@ucl.ac.uk)
- Kossigari Djolar (djolarkossigari@gmail.com)
- Anissa Maâ (anissa.maa@ulb.be)
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
La rédaction (6 avril 2026). 42e séminaire – Jeudi 9 avril 2026 – 11h-13h (GMT+2). MOVIDA. Consulté le 12 mai 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/160n2



