Migração, cruzamento de fronteiras e o mito do movimento “livre”: mapeando o déjà vu

Resumo

This paper examines some aspects of the modern condition of migration within their various historical, political, social and cultural contexts. Transcending the physical, the constituents of place and identity embrace the symbolic, the virtual and the metaphorical, thus exposing the complex nature and function of borders and making them appear volatile and elusive. However, borders remain in essence physical barriers which dictate their own discourses marked by impenetrability and rigor. Factors like realpolitik, the despondent culture of fear and difference, the suspicion of the other and the foreign, the denaturalization of familiar spaces and the insularity
of cultures and value systems impose new realities on a fragile world vitiated by economic and social constraints. These dynamics affect border zones in remarkable ways and determine how these zones of encounter eventually turn into zones of conflict and contestation. In a Ka????aesque climate of suspicion and anxiety, most narratives of border crossing are literally anti-romantic or simple parodies of the once glamorous and intriguing journeys of crossing and jubilation, for they have now given way to the essentialism of border control, filtering, bureaucracy and manipulation. Devoid of any pleasure principle, these narratives can only reflect the negativity of states
and encounters, the horrors of war, bereavement, destruction and desolation. In particular, this paper emphasizes that, regardless of its point of departure or arrival, migration is conditioned by several ideological factors which invariably dominate social perceptions and condition their orientations in dealing with others.