Paper short abstract:

This paper explores Tunisian visa applicants' strategies in their journeys to Europe, challenging fixed visa categories. Ethnographic material reveals their flexible approaches in what sociologists have called category jumping, queering traditional labor migration and family reunification.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the nuanced strategies employed by Tunisian visa applicants navigating the EU border regime, specifically focusing on the interplay of visa categories for family reunification, labour migration, and tourism. Challenging dominant assumptions of visa categories as fixed and state-given identities of people, this anthropological study of the multifold strategies of visa applicants foregrounds their assembled, messy and flexible character. Zooming in on three ethnographic anecdotes, this paper will apply an STS perspective on what sociologists have called category jumping. The ethnographic material queers our notion of family reunification and labor migration beyond the traditional notion of a working father that is reunited with spouse and children. Additionally, I discuss applicants’ engagement with other categories, such as false/true and legal/illegal, which are intricately linked to potential rejection and the criminalization of migration by states. By highlighting participants’ perceptions, the study complements the existing knowledge on visa applicants strategies in navigating categories as well as their perceived impact on the visa procedure’s success.