Moral Mobility

Abstract

In 2014, a group of male Syrian refugees organized a sit-in protest in Greece. They demanded and gained permission to travel further into Europe. In a world where mobility has become a marker of men’s success, Europe’s border regime tests “other” men’s aspiration for mobility through images of good morality and provider’s capability. Within this system, male asylum seekers tend to be rejected as too pitiful, as not real men, or as dangerous distorted men. However, in Greece, the discourse of human dignity has reconstructed people’s perceptions of other men’s vulnerability. Thus, we argue that the young Syrians could embody an emergent refugee masculinity by visibly performing responsibility, democracy, and strength and by navigating their desires through moral subjectivity. Moreover, they rejected personal political sensibilities in order to maintain solidarity within the group. Thus, the performance by the Syrian refugee men has paved the way for emergent refugee masculinities in Greece, which have since then gained worldwide attention.