Ismail Oubad

Background

About Ismail Oubad

I am a doctoral researcher within the ERC AdG SOLROUTES project, which explores solidarities along migration routes across Europe and beyond. I am pursuing a co-tutored Ph.D. between the Center for Ethnic and Migration Studies (CEDEM) at the University of Liège and the School of Social Sciences at the University of Genoa. My research examines how migratory solidarity emerges and operates through the dwelling infrastructures of illegalized migration. Using mobile ethnography, activist engagement, and grassroots organizing, I investigate the subversive infrastructures that enable People-on-the-Move to dwell, resist, and navigate borders along a vital circuit connecting Brussels, western Belgium, and northern France—a key route toward the United Kingdom. My work centers on migratory route-making as both a spatial and political practice, exploring how People-on-the-Move and their supporters reconfigure sanctuary, border-crossing, and collective struggles in contexts of hostile state intervention. Through this lens, I aim to deepen understanding of migratory solidarity, politics of mobility, and abolitionist horizons within contemporary European border regimes.