Subproject 3: Migration and the narratives of Europe as an "Area of freedom, security and justice"

Director Dr Reetta Toivanen

Team leader Dr Miika Tervonen

It focuses on the impact of exile on shaping the European legal, social and religious/cultural narratives. The sub-project breaks up with the perception of exile as one-sided and static transfer of knowledge and approaches it as dynamic and generative process. It traces the role of exile and refugee experience in constructing the European legal and theological thought, in particular, the European identity grounded in the idea of rule of law and human rights.

The subproject tackles such questions as:

1. What is the role of broadly understood forced displacement (exile, refuge, statelessness, internment, and detention) in the production of the idea of Europe and, on more abstract level, in generating scientific knowledge and cultural and political ideas?
2. What is the idea of Europe and European democracy, human rights and the rule of law, that emerges from the experience of historical and contemporary exiles, refugees and asylum seekers?
3. How the idea of Europe developed under the conditions of forced displacement relates to the official narratives of the policy papers produced under the auspices of the Council of Europe and the European Union?