Formation of a System of Temporary Accommodation Centers for Migrants in Transit Regions of Europe

Geography and Natural Resources. 2024. Vol. 45. No. 4. P. 436–443.

Agafoshin M., Gorokhov S., Dmitriev R.

This study focuses on the role of a specific unit in the spatial structure of the migration system: the
transit region. As a consequence of a sharp increase in the number of asylum seekers and refugees, there has
been a rise in the duration of their stay in temporary accommodation centers (TACs)—the main form of their
resettlement in the transit region. The geographical types of TACs are highlighted: border entry, agglomeration,
peripheral, and border exit. TACs act as a kind of “damper” on migration routes, and further they release
accumulated migrants along the route in portions; that is to say, they form migration waves. In some cases,
the migration wave passes through the territory of one country through all types of TACs; however, more
often it is interrupted and/or shortened. The condition of the shortened is usually the implosion and specialization
of the TACs. During the passing of the first migration wave, as a rule, on both sides of the state frontier,
there emerges border entry and exit centers regulated by the authorities of the respective countries. Then,
during the passing of the second and subsequent waves, their convergence (“attraction” to the border) occurs
first, and then the disappearance of centers of the same type (more often, border exit) does. The costs of
maintaining migrants in all types of TACs are too high, so one or two types of centers are formed in countries
located one after another along the migration route, depending on the specialization of neighboring countries.
As a result of the implosion and specialization of the TACs, the migration wave lengthens spatially: thus,
it can arise, develop, and fade within not one country, but the entire transit region.

Keywords: migration, Balkan countries, migration crisis, spatial structure, migratory waves, Balkan route, refugee camps