The Politics of (Im)Mobility at the Border Between Ceuta and Morocco

Abstract

This thesis is the result of three months of fieldwork research at the border between Morocco and the Spanish exclave of Ceuta. There are no official trade relations between Ceuta and Morocco, because Morocco officially does not recognize the border as legitimate and therefore has not instated a customs office. In the place of formal trade relations a whole informal industry has taken shape, focused around the flows of predominantly Moroccan labour and Spanish goods across both sides of the border. Central to this thesis is the (im)mobility of the Moroccan porters, who are employed to carry goods across the border on their back. How does the mobility of porters become a resource to them and to the industry which depends on them? I show that porters make their living in an uncertain relational form of (im)mobility, which takes shape between contrasting demands for economic flows and securitisation and immobility.