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Paper short abstract

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in one reception centre in North Macedonia, we examine how the limbo faced by irregularized migrants affects mental health. We show how the centre is unfit for long-term stays, offering little beyond pharmacotherapy and return measures.

Paper long abstract

In 2024, three men had been staying at the reception centre in Tabanovce, on the Macedonian–Serbian border, for over two months. Migrants usually stay there for two or three days before setting off again towards the border with Serbia or Kosovo in an irregularized way. The men who were stuck there for longer lacked the means and connections to move on; above all, they struggled with mental health issues. The measures taken at the centre are ad hoc and lack a long-term plan or adequate resources. Consequently, psychiatric care is limited to pharmacotherapy, with the ultimate aim of returning these people to their country of origin. This deprives migrants not only of access to effective medical care, but also of their agency.

Based on our ethnographic fieldwork at the reception centre in Tabanovce, we explore what life is like for these individuals in the camp and examine the provision of psychiatric care. Building on Joao Biehl's concept of social abandonment (2005) and critical border studies (Parker, Vaughan-Williams, 2016), we argue that irregularized migrants exist in a state of limbo between mobility and immobility, health and illness, care and abandonment. This leads us to a broader debate on border regimes at the periphery of the European Union and local responses to them.