This workshop will be of interest to anthropologists already studying, or just starting their explorations of refugee life conditions in European border zones, as well to those who research similar processes in other parts of the world. It is based on first-hand ethnographic experiences and observations, gathered during two field trips to Calais (France) and to the Chios and Mytilini islands (Greece), conducted by Nataliya Tchermalykh and Alexander Ephrussi in May-August 2021. The aim of this workshop is twofold: first, we will provide practical information and methodological support to those, willing to organise fieldwork in these and other regions in Europe, fieldwork, implying negotiations with NGO-workers, lawyers, local populations, as well as the agents of law enforcement, cost guards, and asylum case-workers; second, we will share our experiences of the recent epidemiological and geopolitical emergencies, such as COVID-19 pandemics, Brexit, recent Franco-British and Greco-Turkish intergovernmental tensions and decisions that affected the lives of the inhabitants of the camps and their alentours and added to the fragmentation of the already complex social fabric of the refugee lives. By organising this conversation, we hope to establish a meaningful dialogue among actual and future ethnographers of refugee lives across borders, states and continents, resulting in a fruitful exchange and possible future collaborations.