‘In Transit: Mapping Digital and Transnational Narratives across Tunisian Borderlands’

‘In Transit: Mapping Digital and Transnational Narratives across Tunisian Borderlands’ is a double Special Issue emerging from a cross-Mediterranean scholarly collaboration supported by the British Academy. Focusing on Tunisia as a key site for examining contemporary migration, the Special Issue traces the country’s shifting role from a ‘palimpsest of historical crossings’ to a space of mobility containment under the European Union’s externalized border regime. Amid Tunisia’s growing prominence as a transit hub for sub-Saharan migrants seeking entry into Europe, the contributions offer transdisciplinary insights into migration as both lived experience and mediated narrative. Divided into two parts – ‘The digital as medium and method’ and ‘Transnational narratives through transdisciplinary lenses’ – the double Special Issue explores how migration is represented, negotiated and contested online and across borders. It challenges static understandings of transit, (im)mobility and migrant identity by centring diverse actors: Tunisian harraga , forcibly returned nationals, sub-Saharan unauthorized migrants and youth navigating formal migration channels. Rejecting binary frameworks, the articles examine the fluid intersections of movement and stasis through ethnographic, narrative and visual methodologies. Disciplines include digital migration studies, geography, anthropology, psychology, literature, media and photography. A decolonial lens grounds the Special Issue, emphasizing knowledge production from the south of the Mediterranean and prioritizing migrant voices, and reframing Tunisia not just as a site of passage but as a space of transition, border politics and contested narratives.