ABSTRACT
In this concluding chapter we draw together the main empirical findings and analytical contributions discussed in the volume. In doing so, we consider citizen humanitarianism “beyond the crisis” – not only because the label of “crisis”, when referring to the recent developments in the government of migration and mobility in Europe, obscures much more than it actually reveals, but also because, as highlighted in the introductory chapter, citizen humanitarianism is rooted in years of mobilization, activism and volunteering for migrants and refugees across the continent. We thus attempt to capture the dynamism of citizen humanitarianism by highlighting continuities, as well as the changes precipitated by this phenomenon, that may be here to stay. We review how the chapters have engaged with the three themes in each of the book’s sections: how citizen humanitarians seek to find the right place between resisting and becoming “the system” in relation to the established aid sector, how they have faced criminalization and violence and how they have experienced their own “fragile politics”. We conclude by reflecting on the contradictions of these politics, which often develop “against” the European border regime and yet fall short of articulating a rounded critique of the institution of European citizenship and, in some cases, fall back on problematic invocations of European values and principles.
