While most research on borders and security issues is centred on preventing unwanted risk objects to enter the territory, this study departs from the opposite angle, and focuses on young migrants navigating the consequences of war and ethnic conflict.
Around 50 000 ethnic Georgians have returned to southern Abkhazia after the 1992-93 conflict that caused the forced displacement of more than half of the population of the former autonomous Abkhazian republic. The Russian-Abkhazian border control along the administrative boundary line between Abkhazia and Georgia poses an obstacle to young people from returnee families who are studying in Georgia proper. This study, that builds on ethnographic fieldwork and five in-depth qualitative interviews with young people aged 18-25, aims to examine the strategies and practices employ to cross the border. To reach their homes in Abkhazia they need to navigate through riskscapes - landscapes or physical settings embedded with multiple layers of risk. Depending on their social positions (gender, ethnicity, citizenship, age) different riskscapes are unfolded. To handle riskscapes these young people change adopt preventive measures; they change routes and behavior.