Holder of a PhD in social sciences focusing on the legalization strategies of refugees in transit in Turkey (University of Strasbourg, 2012), I have been working for fifteen years on the experience of exile at different borders (Germany-France, Iran-Turkey, Turkey-Greece and Syria-Turkey).
My thesis work, based on an ethnographic study of the Turkish-Iranian border, focuses on the construction of the refugee experience, putting into perspective the relationship between legality, temporality and transnationalism. More generally, the aim is to analyze the functioning of the legalization process for asylum seekers, focusing on the relationship between the various actors : states, the UNHCR, smugglers and asylum seekers. In particular, I study the impact of the socio-political conditions of clandestine border crossing and the asylum procedure on the ways in which asylum seekers think, behave and relate to different power structures. I also analyze how refugees experience and interpret law (Silbey 1998) in a transitory context, and in what ways temporality and sedentariness at the border shape their relationship to law and legality.
Since 2015, based on an ethnography of waiting at the Turkish-Syrian border, I have been focusing my research on the experience of Syrian exile and the different modalities of return. By studying the social, legal and political dynamics of Syrian exile through cross-border (im)mobility, I am interested in the consequences of the duration and experience of exile on the choices and modalities of return. More broadly, the aim is to reflect on the modalities of forced displacement in wartime and on the process of political transitions in post-conflict societies.
