This conference will mainly seek to develop a vocabulary to make sense of new forms of mobility and chart an agenda for their study. Often labelled as “transit migration”, new forms of multi-directional and flexible mobility reflect inherent tensions between movement and containment. In some instances, such movements are shaped by longstanding labour migration patterns towards Europe but are not determined by them. Elsewhere, migrants are marooned for years where their journeys are interrupted and reshaped through their interactions with transnational traders, political exiles, migrant workers, and students.