ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses migrants' movements on the fringes of the EU. Despite of the great efforts towards militarising the external EU borders, externalisation of the border control, the push-backs and violence of the border guards, and imposition of waiting, migrants persisted in their attempts to move forward. Focusing on the border crossers' geographical movement around Serbia in the first year(s) after the closure of the Balkan corridor (before the change of transit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, starting in 2018), I explore the relationship between time, space and the meaning of movement on the doorstep of the EU. I challenge the perception of the unidirectional movement of migrants and demonstrate that it is constantly interrupted and that migrants can move in a reverse direction or even circularly. Basing a subjective story within a frame of objective data I highlight migrating populations' experiences and attempt to understand human reactions to geographical entrapment and uncertainty by linking the concepts of hope, waiting and mobility.
