Research project The European Irregularized Migration Regime at the Periphery of the EU: from Ethnography to Keywords (ERIM) coordinated by The Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, and financed by The Croatian Science Foundation (IP 2019-04-6642) is focused on the documentation and analysis the regime of irregularized migration in the transnational space that includes Croatia and the surrounding countries and is shaped by migratory movements. Based on multilocal ethnographic fieldwork (observation, participation, interviews and other methods), the ERIM project aims to encompass the levels and experiences of different actors, from refugees and migrants, to members of local communities, and employees and representatives of local authorities, international and other organizations.
By distancing from the notion that the migration regime is a signifier of the abstract and monolithic power of the state, ERIM approaches the regime of irregularized migration as a dynamic field of heterogeneous and even opposed practices and interactions of various actors that are articulated in specific ways on the peripheries of the EU. The goal of the project is to document and explore these specifics on multiple levels, and to offer their empirically based and theoretically relevant conceptualizations. The expected outcomes (primarily, the keywords collection, i.e. a network of ethnographically documented and analytically elaborated concepts within the individual research papers, project publications, and the e-ERIM multimedia internet platform (https://e-erim.ief.hr/?locale=en) will be aimed at contributing to a deeper understanding of the contradictions and potentials of the concept of migration regime and irregularized migration movements in the academic, but also the broader social sphere.