Svenja Schurade, MA

Since October 2023, I am working as a research assistant in the European research project MORE in collaboration with various university institutes and NGOs in Europe on European return and readmission policy. Since 2020, I am working on my dissertation on deportations and the institutionalization of racism in Germany. My research focuses on the implementation and organization of deportations, deportation detention, and criminalization, but also on solidarity alternatives and counter-proposals that have become common practice at the grassroots level.

I studied cultural anthropology/European ethnology and philosophy in Göttingen. My master's thesis dealt with the implementation of deportations in Lower Saxony, after I had spent the previous years working at the interface of science, art, and activism on the opening and closing of the so-called Balkan route during the long summer of migration in 2015, which resulted in the traveling exhibition “yallah!? about the Balkan route.”

In my work, I combine scientific research on power relations and the governance of migration with political involvement in a society based on freedom of movement, equality, liberty, and democratic self-determination.

Research Interests

• racism, migration, and border regimes
• Deportations and detention
• Activist research