The Max Planck research group looks at how Cyprus, Greece and Malta have managed their transformation from countries of emigration to destination countries for migrants and asylum seekers; and their emergence as border states of an emerging EU migration and asylum regime. Scholars from the three countries and migration researchers from Europe will form a network and explore this rebordering of the Southeast Mediterranean in a series of workshops and international conferences.

Re-bordering gradually erodes the sovereignty of nation states and leads to clashes (but also cooperation) among European, national and local institutions. Relatedly, re-bordering is having profound consequences on public understandings of citizenship and nationhood in the three countries. The partner group, co-hosted by the University of Cyprus and the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity (MPI-MMG) will aim to provide a systematic theoretical and empirical account of re-bordering in this understudied area of the European Union.