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Tagged: mobility

Participants of the policy talk.

Bridging the Maghreb-Sahel Divide in Policy and Research: Take-aways from the MECAM Policy Talk 2025

By Clara-Auguste Süß, André Bank & Julius Dihstelhoff. In an era shaped by global crises, geopolitical realignments, and socio-economic transformation, strengthening partnerships between the Maghreb, the Sahel, and European counterparts is no longer optional. The Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM) dedicated this year’s edition of its Policy Talk to exploring the nexus between the Maghreb and Sahel. The event’s theme “Entanglements between Maghreb and Sahel: Navigating Shared Challenges through Cooperation” aligned with MECAM’s guiding focus on “Imagining Futures: Dealing with Disparity”. Designed to connect academic analysis with policy dialogue, the event aimed to support informed political decision-making, deepen cooperation, and enhance MECAM’s visibility within Berlin’s political landscape.

Reclaiming Movement: Hayet Amamou on the Maghreb’s Mobile Past and Future

Hayet Amamou in Conversation with Julius Dihstelhoff. Prof. Amamou argues that precolonial patterns of mobility—not rigid territoriality—forged the Maghreb’s identity. Her work challenges modern narratives of exclusion, insisting that historical connectivity, not isolation, holds the key to reimagining the region’s future. Amamou’s work aligns with MECAM’s mission to “imagine futures” by confronting historical erasures. Her keynote underscored that the Maghreb’s precolonial mobility was “a negotiated order, not chaos”—one that offers alternatives to today’s exclusionary policies.

The Political Activities of Dual Citizens in the Western Mediterranean, with a Focus on Tunisia, Algeria and France – 5in10 with Thomas Serres

Dr. Thomas Serres’ research spans the field of Middle Eastern studies, critical security studies, and comparative politics, combining an ethnographic approach with a conceptual apparatus inspired by critical theory. He is particularly interested in the effects of protracted and entangled crises (popular uprisings, “war on terror,” refugee crisis, neoliberalization) in North Africa and beyond. His first book, The Suspended Disaster: Governance by Catastrophization in Bouteflika’s Algeria, was published in 2023 with Columbia University Press, expanding on a French edition initially released in 2019. He also co-edited the volume North Africa and the Making of Europe with Bloomsbury Publishing (2018).

Call for Contributions: Inequality and Mobility. Perspectives from Tunisia / Inégalités et mobilités. Perspectives depuis la Tunisie

“Inequality and Mobility”aims to discuss the complex relationships between rising inequalities and diverse types of mobility in present-day Tunisia and the Maghreb. Over a decade after the onset of mass protests that spread from Tunisia’s rural interior, inequalities have only deepened.

Migrant Dreams: Egyptian Workers in the Gulf States

Interview with Samuli Schielke. Samuli Schielke’s latest book, Migrant Dreams: Egyptian Workers in the Gulf States (AUC Press, 2020), is a vivid ethnography of Egyptian migrants to the Arab Gulf states. It investigates the imagination that migration thrives on, and the hopes and ambitions generated by the repeated experience of leaving and returning home.