Ioan-Cosmin POPAN

 

Project at the MaCI

November 2023 - October 2025

It ethnographically unravels the multiple meanings, experiences and imaginations of labour and mobility. It aims to trace the migration trajectories of young West African men who experience diverse regimes of mobility, immobility and labour throughout their existential and physical movements towards Europe.

‘The field-sites for the project are France and Senegal. In France, a destination and a transition point for irregular migrants, I conduct research in Lyon and Grenoble. In Senegal, both a starting and transition point for West African migrants, I engage in research in Mbour, one of the preferred departing points to the Canary Islands.  MOBILISE uses classic ethnographic methods and complements them with creative approaches. I plan to organise a series of workshops/creative labs where research participants will engage in creative activities revolving around drawing to explore imaginations and experiences of migration and labour. I have a longstanding interest in different forms of mobility, which have grown at the intersection of sociology, anthropology, human geography and urban studies. For the last years, working alongside migrant food couriers has prompted me to investigate how different mobility regimes and punitive migration policies impact labour and movement across borders. For MOBILISE, I use insights from my previous research on the gig economy to further study how precarious work is a precondition and a consequence of irregular migration.’

For this research, Cosmin is affiliated with the Institute of Languages and Cultures of Europe, America, Africa, Asia, and Australia (ILCEA4). He is also a member of the ILCEA4 axis Migrations, Frontiers and International Relations. He will be working closely with Sara Casella-Colombeau, Senior lecturer, member of the ILCEA4 and head of the MFIR axis. She coordinated the Policy Department of the Institut Convergences Migrations (ICM) until 2020. As a political scientist, her research focuses on the construction of Europe and the establishment of the Schengen area, migration policies including the control of illegal immigration and labour immigration policies.

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Funded by the French government's Programme d'Investissement Avenir and implemented by ANR France 2030