Transgressing borders through the digital: Tunisian harraga’s ‘counter-maps of disagreement’ on social media

Within the context of digital border technologies, this article undertakes an analysis of the use of social media by people on the move. The main case study analysed here consists of social media clips taken during the crossing of the Mediterranean liquid border by young harraga (الحراقة), an Arabic word used in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco to define ‘those who burn the borders’, in other words, those who try to reach Europe from the Maghreb via unauthorized routes. These videos represent an attempt to reframe the mainstream narrative of the undocumented and undesired migrants through what I define as a ‘counter-map of disagreement’. Going beyond the visual regime of criminality and establishing a new paradigm of self-determination and agency, these counter-maps reverse the logic of the border while transgressing it. Through a multimodal analysis, this article examines the Mediterranean border from the perspective of people on the move, who are shaping a new digital gaze and narrative. Rather than viewing borders solely as violent and divisive tools, they depict them as sites of contestation, porous and fluid.