As record numbers of forced migrants are driven from their homes and encounter ever more restrictive border enforcement regimes, understanding the complex experiences of people on the move becomes increasingly important. While some forced migrants successfully negotiate the hurdles of seeking asylum, far more are left unprotected by international law. My ethnographic research asks:

• What are the experiences of the increasing numbers of forced migrants who fall outside the protections of asylum law?
  
• How do their experiences illuminate changing dimensions of border enforcement, mobility, and sovereignty? 
  

Exploring these questions through the interdisciplinary lenses of political geography, feminist geopolitics, and migration studies allows me to connect individual life experiences of migrants and those who advocate for them with the wider political, economic and social forces that underpin the hostile conditions they face. Understanding the conditions that migrants encounter as they move through the world contributes towards efforts to create more just and humane responses to human mobility.