Sans Papiers: the social and economic lives of young undocumented migrants

2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (13) ◽  
pp. 2456-2458
Author(s):  
Lydia Morris
Keyword(s):  
Undocumented Migrants ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sans Papiers

scholarly journals ‘From Sanctuary to Welcoming Cities’: Negotiating the Social Inclusion of Undocumented Migrants in Liège, Belgium

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 90-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sébastien Lambert ◽  
Thomas Swerts
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Immigration Policies ◽  
Undocumented Migrants ◽  
Immigrant Rights ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sans Papiers ◽  
National Governments

Cities have become important sites of sanctuary for migrants with a precarious legal status. While many national governments in Europe have adopted restrictive immigration policies, urban governments have undertaken measures to safeguard undocumented residents’ rights. Existing scholarship on sanctuary cities has mostly focused on how cities’ stance against federal immigration policies can be interpreted as urban citizenship. What is largely missing in these debates, however, is a better insight into the role that local civil society actors play in pushing for sanctuary and negotiating the terms of social in- and exclusion. In this article, we rely on a qualitative study of the 2017 Sanctuary City campaign in Liège, Belgium, to argue that power relations between (and among) civil society actors and city officials help to explain why the meaning and inclusiveness of ‘sanctuary’ shifted over time. Initially, radical activists were able to politicize the issue by demanding the social inclusion of the ‘sans-papiers’ through grassroots mobilization. However, the cooptation of the campaign by immigrant rights organizations led to the adoption of a motion wherein the local government depicted the city as a ‘welcoming’ instead of a ‘sanctuary’ city. By showing how immigrant rights professionals sidelined radical activists during the campaign, we highlight the risk of depoliticization when civil society actors decide to cooperate with local governments to extend immigrant rights. We also underline the potential representational gap that emerges when those who are directly implicated, namely undocumented migrants, are not actively involved in campaigns that aim to improve their inclusion.

Sans Papiers

2020 ◽  
pp. 211-240
Author(s):  
Jeremy F. Lane
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Humanitarian Aid ◽  
Undocumented Migrants ◽  
Undocumented Migration ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Sans Papiers ◽  
Interpretative Framework ◽  
Off Shoring

If the issue of work has acquired a high political profile in France over recent decades, the question of the sans papiers, of undocumented migrants and their potential place within the Republic, has become equally highly politicised. However, these two issues are rarely seen as being intrinsically connected, protests in favour of the rights of the sans papiers typically being couched in humanitarian terms, with little reference to questions of political economy. This is equally true of many filmic representations of the sans papiers, which reinforce this notion of sans papiers as victims deserving of humanitarian aid, rather than as active agents. This chapter draws on Emmanuel Terray’s notion of ‘délocalisation sur place’ or ‘on-shore off-shoring’ to argue for a better understanding of the role the sans papiers play within the contemporary French jobs market, epitomising the logics of flexibility, modulation, and precarity that now characterise its functioning. Armed with this interpretative framework, it re-reads a number of films and novels featuring undocumented migrants, uncovering the insights concealed behind their overt humanitarianism, insights into the interrelationships between undocumented migration and the shifts in employment analysed in earlier chapters.

What’s “Justice and Dignity” Got to Do with It?: Migrant Vulnerability, Corporate Complicity, and the State

2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-116
Author(s):  
Angela C. Stuesse
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Organized Labor ◽  
Immigrant Workers ◽  
Undocumented Migrants ◽  
Worker Rights ◽  
The Social ◽  
Employer Sanctions ◽  
Engaged Ethnography

In 2001, Tyson Foods, one of the world’s leading chicken processors, was indicted on charges that it recruited undocumented migrants to work in its plants across the rural United States. In the following years, Tyson engaged in an operation to purge the largest chicken plant in the country of hundreds of unionized immigrant workers, relying heavily on the Social Security Administration’s controversial “No-Match” program to shape its termination practices. In response, a local campaign called for “Justice and Dignity” in the form of an improved corporate policy that would simultaneously serve the interests of the company, its workers, and their communities. This article chronicles that localized struggle and its national aftermath, illuminating the far-reaching effects federal “employer sanctions” have had on transnational corporations and their policymakers, on workers of different backgrounds, and on strategies used to advocate for worker rights. Politically engaged ethnography reveals how differentially positioned actors navigate and experience the neoliberal immigration and employment laws of the United States while deepening our understanding of the workings of the poultry industry, the recruitment of immigrant workers, and the anthropology of organized labor.

The Economy of Undocumented Migration: Taxation and Access to Welfare

2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mats Tjernberg
Keyword(s):  
Informal Economy ◽  
Welfare Policy ◽  
Social Benefit ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
Undocumented Migrants ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Formal Economy ◽  
Social Welfare System ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Contributions

AbstractA strict division between the formal economy and the informal economy cannot be made and every economic actor has in certain situations a propensity to engage in informal economic activities. The formal, as well as informal economy may lead to economic growth which is essential for a broad welfare policy, under which social benefits are categorized. A person’s economic contribution to a state should entail some possibility of getting economic and social benefits from it. The article shows that a person, who is liable to tax in a state, by staying in its territory, should not be excluded from the social welfare system. There is often a lack of congruence between tax liability and right to residence-based social benefits. A typical example is that of undocumented migrants. Welfare policy is to a large extent governed by a mix of rules linked to taxation, social contributions and social benefits. It could be expected that the policy be well devised, leading to well-coordinated systems. European states having a social policy with roots in a Beveridge model (such as Sweden), should be obliged to integrate undocumented migrants in their social benefit system. Regardless of any declared income they should be part of basic social benefits scheme by virtue of territoriality alone.

Migrant struggles for the right to have rights: three examples of social movements powered by migrants in New York, Paris and Barcelona

2008 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 677-694 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amarela Varela Huerta
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Undocumented Migrants ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
Collective Actors ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Right ◽  
Sans Papiers

This article examines three specific examples of struggles waged by migrants who, through various forms of activism and mobilisation, and in collaboration with other collective actors, have called on the Spanish, French and United States governments to promulgate the unconditional regularisation of all persons currently suffering the condition of aliens as a result of these governments' policies. The migrant movements also demand social, economic and political rights for all citizens, irrespective of ethnicity, class and gender. The article looks at the migrants' movement in Barcelona, the Ninth Collective coordinating undocumented migrants (‘sans papiers’) in Paris, and the Movement for Justice in El Barrio, New York. This is a novel type of social movement, one that eludes formal structures of representation, such as are found in classic trade unionism, but which, we would argue, is, on account of its claims and activists, of key importance for anyone seeking to understand or promote workers' rights in contemporary urban settings.

scholarly journals Paperittomien maahanmuuttajien muuttoliike Suomeen, Suomessa ja Suomesta

Terra ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 133 (4) ◽  
pp. 203-216
Author(s):  
Jussi Jauhiainen ◽  
Miriam Tedeschi
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Country Of Origin ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Undocumented Migrants ◽  
Residence Permit ◽  
Decision To Leave ◽  
Perceived Safety ◽  
The Social ◽  
Empirical Material ◽  
Do So

Irregular migration to, in and from Finland is the focus of this study. The empirical material consists of a survey among undocumented migrants (n=100) in Finland in 2019 and earlier surveys among all Finnish municipalities about undocumented migrants. In 2019, about 4,000–5,000 undocumented migrants were in Finland. Most current undocumented migrants came to Finland in 2015 legally as asylum seekers (who later failed to obtain asylum or other residence permit), fewer entered Finland without legal right to do so and some remained in Finland after their resident permit on other than asylum seeking grounds expired. War, insecurity, and economic challenges in the country of origin influenced people’s decision to leave. Perceived safety and economic opportunities in Finland influenced their choice of it as the destination country. For some, Finland was rather a choice influenced by rumours and misinformation, also in the social media. Many undocumented migrants live in Helsinki and the capital region. This area attracts undocumented migrants from other parts of Finland due to better everyday opportunities. Very few if any lives in rural areas and small towns. Of responded undocumented migrants, 2–11 percent considered outmigration from Finland and 22 percent could perhaps return to their country of origin. Many will remain in Finland for years if not permanently despite legal, economic and social hardships.

scholarly journals Harnessing Visibility and Invisibility through Arts Practices: Ethnographic Case Studies with Migrant Performers in Belgium

Arts ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Shannon Damery ◽  
Elsa Mescoli
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
The Other ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Undocumented Migrants ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Sans Papiers

This paper endeavors to understand the role of arts in migration-related issues by offering insights into the different ways in which artistic practices can be used by migrants and investigating migrants’ differing objectives in participating in the arts. Through the exploration of the initiatives of undocumented and refugee migrants involved in artistic groups in Belgium, this paper compares the motivations of the performers and concludes that art can operate as an empowering tool for migrants as it constitutes a space for agency, notwithstanding the specific scope of which it is contextually charged. It allows migrants to render themselves visible or invisible, depending on their contrasting motivations. The creative productions of the first group, composed by members of “La Voix des sans papiers de Liège”, a collective of undocumented migrants, corresponds to an explicit effort of political engagement in the local context. The other examples are of undocumented and refugee artists joining musical groups with no specific aim of promoting the cause of undocumented and refugee persons. The choice to be involved in such groups highlights their desire to be, in some ways, invisible and anonymous while participating in this collective of artists. Through these examples, we see that art offers opportunities for migrants to actively participate in the socio-cultural and political environment in which they reside and to claim various forms of official and unofficial belonging whether it occurs through visibility or invisibility.

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