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Mobilizing for safe passages and escape aid: challenging the ‘asylum paradox’ between active and activist citizenship, humanitarianism and solidarity

ABSTRACT The ‘asylum paradox’ is a pivotal feature of refugee politics in the Global North: In order to effectively claim and obtain refugee rights, refugees are forced to cross borders illegally because of the lack of legal entry options. As a result, access to refugee protection has become a controversial issue, and civil society initiatives have begun mobilizing people for safe passage and escape aid. This paper analyses a range of such practices in Germany and Austria. While some initiatives focus on existent, but barely implemented legal entry channels, such as resettlement, family reunification, or relocation, others directly facilitate the transit of refugees, including undocumented border crossings. In the context of dominant border regimes, members of these organizations oscillate between positions of ‘active citizens’ and ‘activist citizens’ (Isin). In different ways, these initiatives demonstrate notions of community and belonging, pointing to practices of transnational solidarity that include people on the move.