Infrastructure of Transit

Philipp Ratfisch is a sociologist and migration researcher. He obtained his PhD at the University of Osnabrück/Germany and worked as a researcher at its Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS). He is a member of the Network for Critical Migration and Border Regime Studies (kritnet) and co-founder of “movements. Journal for Critical Migration and Border Regime Studies”. His research fields include migration and border regimes, infrastructures of migration, transit migration, border struggles, informal economies, waste picking, humanitarianism and migration to and through Turkey. He co-edited the special issues “Contested b/orders: Turkey’s changing migration regime” and “Umkämpfte Bewegungen nach und durch Europa” for movements. He also published articles in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies and Peripherie, among others. After completing his PhD, he began working for the Bundesfachverband Minderjährigkeit und Flucht e.V. (Federal Association Minority and Flight) that advocates for the rights of minor refugees in Germany and the EU.

• Introduction.- Studying migrant recycling labor in Turkey in an urban context.- From Afghanistan and Pakistan to Turkey and the EU: Producing infrastructures of transit.- Informal recycling as an infrastructure of transit.- Waste picking practices as urban border struggles.- Conclusion: Afghan*Pakistani recycling workers (re)producing an infrastructure of transit.