Introduction

NAVID KERMANI's Einbruch der Wirklichkeit: Auf dem Flüchtlingstreck durch Europa (Upheaval: The Refugee Trek through Europe) is a first-person account of the author's travel along the Balkan Route that was taken by thousands of refugees from the coasts of Turkey through Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, and Hungary to Austria and Germany between July 2014 and March 2016. Accompanied by the photographer Moises Saman, the author-narrator embarks on his journey at the end of September 2015 and travels in the opposite direction, from Budapest to Izmir, to document the mass migration and the changing face of Europe. Combining journalistic reporting, poetic language, and philosophical insight, Kermani depicts a world in which the familiar becomes unknown and the unknown familiar. The unwanted, yet hyper-visible presence of the refugees transforms both the physical space and the very notion of Europe. This forced migration shatters the Eurocentric worldview, brings the misery of war to people who would much rather forget about armed conflicts around the globe, and exposes the alleged concern of many political elites about human rights (so often used to condemn non-European governments) as empty rhetoric.

During the nine-day journey, Kermani and Saman travel by car, stopping at the major migration hotspots and border crossings: Budapest in Hungary; Opatovac in Croatia; Šid, Belgrade, Preševo, and Miratovac in Serbia; Tabanovce and Gevgelija in Macedonia; Idomeni, Piraus, and Mytilini on Lesbos in Greece; and, finally, Assos and Izmir in Turkey. The dizzying, yet stimulating combination of Kermani's interactions with refugees, the volunteers who help them, and law enforcement officials, as well as his reflections on the regulatory mechanisms employed (or not) by local governments, the creation of various businesses along the route, and activities by smugglers transform in the book into a mosaic of failed policies, fragmented lives, and new types of hybridity. The responses of local populations, ranging from racism and prejudice through indifference to compassion and altruism reveal humanity at its best and worst. In spite of Kermani's attempt to tell individual stories of hope and survival and his depiction of the young volunteers and political activists who, by getting involved in the aid efforts of their own accord, exemplify the best of Europe, the narrative has a deeply pessimistic tone.