It is becoming increasingly dangerous and difficult to reach Europe in search of protection. This development is a consequence of the aggressive migration policies established by the EU and its member states. The externalization of…
Migration and Borders
BORDER – a collective poem
Written by the participants at a series of creative writing workshops which took place in the Trampoline House during Spring 2016. Collected by Liv Nimand Duvå I live on the border between the I and…
Lucky day
by Liv Nimand Duvå • 2016 I’m standing in a room with my partner at the Swedish Migration Agency. We’re here to hand in our application for a Swedish residence permit, which should then allow…
Keeping warm in cold country
When you exit the metro at Christianshavn in Copenhagen you see a number of statues known as the Greenland Monument. They were made from red granite by the Danish sculptor Svend Rathsack after he had…
A burning taste of exile
Recommendation: Warsan Shire: Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth. Poems. flipped eye publishing 2011 By Lise Olivarius The first words of Warsan Shire’s collection of poems read: “I have my mother’s mouth and my…
The border produces the violence that surrounds it
Recommendation: Reece Jones: Violent Borders. Refugees and the Right to Move. Verso 2016 By Lise Olivarius • 2017 Why are states so obsessed with restricting the movements of people, and particularly poor people? This is…
Burning the strait
Can migration and literature be mutually generating ways of escaping reality? Is the paperlessness of undocumented migrants a liberation from constricting identity, or does it rather result in painful identity crises? How is the boat…
Language is a soft and delicate piece of cloth in which every mother wraps her child
How is it possible to leave ones language and start over? When Jila Mossaed came to Sweden in 1986 she had published two novels and five collections of poetry in Farsi. In the following pages…
Who is a refugee?
By Ali Ali • 2016 Don’t panic. This text is not a legal document stating who is eligible for asylum. A refugee without paperwork When they ask me if I am a refugee, I say…
Waiting for Asylum
visAvis brings two poems by Reem Zakzouk, a stateless woman of Palestine, born in Saudi Arabia and currently living in Sweden. In her writing she explores questions of exile and belonging, registration versus recognition and…
