scholarly journals Why irregular migrants arrive and remain: the role of intermediaries

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (11) ◽  
pp. 1813-1830 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurizio Ambrosini
Keyword(s):  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Chidi Wachuku

Advocacy coalition groups such as closed border supporters and open border advocates play a role in Canada’s immigration detention policy subsystem. Using political mobilization, they exploit pathways of policy change to promote policy objectives which favour or limit policy changes relating to the detention of asylum seekers and irregular migrants for immigration purposes in Canada. This paper investigates the role of actors from opposing advocacy coalition groups in promoting or challenging immigration detention in Canada. The paper adopts the theoretical underpinnings of “Advocacy Coalition Framework” as a lens of analysis to trace the role of advocacy coalition groups in recent history of Canada’s immigration detention policy subsystem. This paper assumes an actor-centric approach with an aim to contribute to current body of knowledge on Canada’s immigration detention policy subsystem. Keywords: immigration detention; open border advocates; closed border supporters; advocacy coalition groups; advocacy coalition framework; Canada; policy subsystem


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasper Tjaden ◽  
Felipe Dunsch

In response to mounting evidence of the dangers of irregular migration from Africa to Europe, the number of information campaigns designed to raise awareness of the potential risks has rapidly increased. Governments, international organizations and civil society organizations implement a variety of campaigns to counter misinformation spread by smuggling and trafficking networks. The evidence on the effects of such information interventions on potential migrants remains limited and largely anecdotal. More generally, the role of risk perceptions for the decision-making process of potential irregular migrants is rarely explicitly tested while the concept of risk pervades conventional migration models, particularly in the field of economics. We address this gap by providing causal evidence of the effects of a peer-to-peer information intervention on the perceptions, knowledge and intentions of potential migrants in Dakar, Senegal, using a randomized controlled trial design. The results show that – three months after the intervention – peer-to-peer information events about risks increased potential migrants’ subjective information levels, raised risk perceptions; and reduced intentions to migrate irregularly. We found no substantial effects on factual migration knowledge. We discuss how the effects may be driven by the trust and identification-enhancing nature of peer-to-peer communication.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Burcu Toğral Koca

Soğuk Savaş'ın sona ermesinin ardından, ulus ötesi etkileriyle küresel gelişmeler, güvenlik konusunda çalışan akademisyenleri, politika yapıcıları, siyasetçileri devlet-merkezli ve askeri-odaklı güvenlik tanımının ötesine taşımıştır. Bu dönüşümle, kalkınmayı güvenlikle ilişkilendiren söylemler de ivme kazanmıştır. Bu söylemlerin ve güvenlik ile kalkınma arasında kurulan bağın göç ve hareketlilik olguları üzerinde de önemli etkileri olmuştur. Zenginler, vasıflı işçiler, “gelişmiş” Batı’nın turistleri serbest dolaşım hakkından sorunsuz bir şekilde yararlanırken; aynı hakkı kullanmak isteyen, sığınmacıları, mültecileri, fakir, vasıfsız ve “düzensiz” göçmenleri kapsayan ve “artık nüfus” olarak nitelendirilebilecek gruplar yoğun ve sert teknolojik/bürokratik kontrol ve güvenlik pratiklerine maruz kalmaya başlamıştır. Bu pratiklerden bir tanesi, Avrupa Birliği’nin (AB) dış sınırlarını bu “istenmeyen”/”artık nüfusa” karşı korumak için faaliyete geçirilen Frontex’in kurulmasıdır. Operasyonel ve kurumsal yapısı itibariyle militarize bir organ olan Frontex, “artık nüfus”tan doğabilecek sözde tehditlere karşı bir kontrol teknolojisine dönüşmüştür. Bu çalışma, biyopolitikayı bir yönetim teknolojisi olarak ele alan Foucaultcu yaklaşım temelinde, bu değişim ve gelişmeleri eleştirel bir yolla çözümlemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bunu yaparken, ilk olarak, AB’nin göç rejimini şekillendiren ve biyopolitikanın bir yansıması olan kalkınma ve güvenlik arasında kurulan bağ tahlil edilmiştir. Daha sonra, Frontex ve Frontex’in Türkiye-Yunanistan sınırındaki rolü incelenerek bu tahlil daha somut hale getirilmiştir. Son olarak, Frontex’in operasyonlarının göçmen haklarını ihlal ettiği ortaya konmuş ve bu nedenle AB ve ilgili devletler tarafından geliştirilen biyopolitik göç rejimine karşı insan odaklı, eleştirel bir siyasi duruşun geliştirilmesi gerektiği vurgulanmıştır. ENGLISH TITLE & ABSTRACTBiopolitics, security and the role of Frontex on the Turkish-Greek borderFollowing the end of the Cold War, global developments with their transnational effects have induced security scholars, policy makers and politicians to move beyond state-centric and military-focused conceptualization of security. In this transformation, discourses linking development to security have gained momentum. To put it differently, “liberal” states of the West have constructed a biopolitical distinction between “developed” and “underdeveloped” populations and administered the latter as a security threat to the former. Such framings and the nexus between security and development have had important repercussions for the mobility of people. The rich, skilled labours, tourists from “developed” West have come to enjoy the right to free movement without much of interruption. On the other hand, the “surplus” population, including asylum seekers, refugees, poor, unskilled and “irregular” migrants have been exposed to intense technological/bureaucratic control and surveillance practices. One of them is the introduction of Frontex for policing the European Union (EU)’s external borders against this “unwanted”/”surplus” population in conformity with new discourses linking development to security. This militarized body equipped with war-like devices has turned into a technology of containment related to the so-called threats stemming from “surplus” population. On the basis of these transformations, this paper aims to problematize and unpack these issues through building upon Foucauldian approaches on biopolitics as a technology of government. In particular, the paper, first, deconstructs the nexus between development and security in the EU’s migration regime. This analysis is made more tangible by looking into the activities of Frontex on the Turkish-Greek border. Finally, this paper draws the attention to the human rights implications of this security architecture and resultant practices. 


2021 ◽  
pp. 1866802X2110278
Author(s):  
Carla Angulo-Pasel

Using Mexico’s Tarjeta de Visitante por Razones Humanitarias (TVRH) as a primary case study, this article examines how states can use temporary protection schemes as border security measures while claiming to provide protection. Although the TVRH offers a legal pathway and status to move within Mexico, it equally restricts certain rights due to its temporary nature. It becomes a form of differential inclusion by which the state has the right to be able to “exclude and define the limits” of a particular population but also claim inclusion on humanitarian grounds. Despite the claim of protecting migrants, the application of this regular status can essentially become a form of interdiction, which sustains the political framing of migration as ultimately a “threat” that needs to be governed. On the ground, migrants with these temporary regular statuses occupy a liminal space and live a precarious existence similar to those migrants who do not possess a legal status at all. This power imbalance exists more often as states prefer to grant a temporary immigration status, which ensures less responsibility and support that accompanies more rights and protections. Based on policy analysis and field work, the article will examine the TVRH, the processes for obtaining this legal status, and the consequences for irregular migrants.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 1429-1446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioana Vrăbiescu

The French police and Romanian forces seek to identify, surveil and control Romanian citizens who are suspected to be ‘irregular migrants’ or ‘criminals’ in France. The two states sealed a bilateral agreement to deploy Romanian police forces on French territory: twice a year Romanian uniformed officers patrol next to the French police, whereas liaison officers work throughout the year in several French police units. Policing its own citizens on another state territory becomes part of police work in the EU, a police model encouraged and criticized at the same time. This article engages in debates on geographies of policing and cross-national policing in the context of EU citizens’ deportation. It problematizes the ‘imagined’ and ‘fictional’ in nation, state and police work instead of the claimed management, control, and law enforcement. It scrutinizes the role of performativity in the work of Romanian and French joint police forces. It documents cultural organization of the police in France and Romania, and it empirically explores personal positions in Franco-Romanian police forces working together in the Paris region. This article aims to evidence the cultural, social and institutional dynamics within transnational policing played out against the background of a bilateral mission.


2020 ◽  
pp. 026101832090431
Author(s):  
Stuart N. Hodkinson ◽  
Hannah Lewis ◽  
Louise Waite ◽  
Peter Dwyer

Abolishing ‘modern slavery’ has now achieved international policy consensus. The most recent UK initiative – the 2015 Modern Slavery Act (MSA) – includes amongst other aspects tougher prison sentencing for perpetrators and the creation of an independent anti-slavery commissioner to oversee its implementation. However, drawing on research into forced labour among people seeking asylum in England, this article argues that when considered alongside the UK government’s deliberate creation of a ‘hostile environment’ towards migrants, not least in the Immigration Acts of 2014 and 2016, state action to outlaw modern slavery is flawed, counter-productive and disingenuous. We show how the MSA focuses only on the immediate act of coercion between ‘victim’ and ‘criminal’, ignoring how the hostile state vulnerabilises migrants in ways that compel their entry into and continued entrapment within severe labour exploitation.


2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carin Björngren Cuadra

In a European comparative perspective Sweden, though upholding a universal welfare model is one of the most restrictive countries as regards irregular migrants’ right to access health care. They do not access care via the legal framework beyond emergency care upon payment of the full cost. The aim of this article is to present initial findings from a study exploring the Swedish policy answers as regards right to access health care for irregular migrants residing in the country. Sweden’s policy answers is put in a European comparative perspective as well as discussed with an interest for suggested changes involving access on the same terms as resident and the role of health and welfare professions’ is regard. By claiming that their jurisdiction within health and welfare services is independent from the state’s interest of control of migration a prevailing hierarchical relationship between social policies and those of migration is renegotiated.


Author(s):  
Miguel Fernández Labayen ◽  
Irene Gutierrez

This article examines the use of digital media by irregular migrants in their preparation to cross the Moroccan–Spanish border. Based on long-term exploratory research that includes active participation and in-depth interviews, we analyse the videos produced by sub-Saharan young males while they live in the settlements near Ceuta. By focusing on processes of self-representation and border crossing, we highlight the role of digital media as it embodies a liminal physical experience against the violence applied by the Moroccan border security forces and the surveillance systems implemented by the Spanish Guardia Civil. Departing from recent contributions to digital migration studies, this article develops the concept of digital placemaking as an assemblage of discourses and spatial practices that serve opposite interests and generate an extremely violent confrontation through the use and control of borderspace. Therefore, we claim that the migrants’ placemaking strategies can be understood as mobile counter-discourses against border control. In this sense, the physical and digital activities of the migrants in the settlements are examples of what we call tactical placemaking, insofar as they become ways to stay alive and link their persons and futures to discussions about access to place and its consequences. To examine the migrants’ spatial tactics and their social meaning, first we will offer a brief infrastructural and historiographical account of the Moroccan–Spanish border in Ceuta. Second, we will explain our methodological perspective to shed light on the modes that placemaking experiences are created and circulated among migrants during and after their stay at the settlements. Finally, we will study the self-recordings shot in the clandestine camps of the forest in Fnideq and the border of Ceuta and consider how these videos materialize legal, cultural and physical imaginaries on migration while they simultaneously disrupt official attempts at controlling placemaking.


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