Migrants in Transit: Emotion and Experience between Mobility and Immobility, 19th and 20th Centuries

Marcelo Borges, Dickinson College

This paper explores the experience of migrants in transit and the emotions associated with mobility and immobility. It considers emotions connected with the journey and with movement itself, focusing mostly on the realities of steerage. Passengers interacted with each other in a social world that both reinforced rules and social mores from the outside world while creating new ones that were site and experience specific. While most of the discussion will focus on turn-of-the twentieth century transoceanic migrations, there will be a brief comparison with other experiences of transit in the twentieth century, namely those of the so-called “boat people” and recent trans-Mediterranean crossings.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 52. Migration Affects