Immigration and the Imperial

2019 ◽  
pp. 496-516
Author(s):  
Sherally Munshi
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Immigration Law ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Legal Scholarship ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
Law And Policy

In legal scholarship on immigration, as in public discourse, we often take for granted the normative and conceptual priority of nation state borders—as though borders were here first, and migrants came second. But people have been migrating since long before the establishment of nation state borders. European imperialism was sustained by mass migration. The British imperial system consisted of the voluntary migration of settlers and administrators as well as the involuntary or forced migration of enslaved Africans, Asian “coolies,” and criminal convicts. U.S. settler imperialism continues to effect mass displacements. Because the conventional nation-state framing of immigration law often obscures the imperial histories that have shaped the inequalities that now compel migration, this chapter asserts that scholars of immigration law and history have much to gain by displacing the nation-state framework, through which questions about immigration law and policy are raised, and replacing it with an expanded framework of the imperial.

scholarly journals Refugee Voices: Exploring the Border Zones between States and State Bureaucracies

Refuge ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawn Chatty
Keyword(s):  
Forced Migration ◽  
World Order ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Border Zones ◽  
Forced Migrants ◽  
Political Security ◽  
Policy Solutions

Settled people have been forced to move and nomads have been coerced into settling for as long as there has been history. Until the emergence of the Westphalian concept of the nation (where the state corresponded to the nation, groups of people united by language and culture), movement and mobility were largely recognized and accommodated. However, most contemporary academic disciplines as well as public institutions adopt a particular sedentist perspective on the nation-state. It is commonly recognized that people are displaced and move when political states collapse; they return when political security is restored. The liminal “state” outside the defined territory of the nation-state, where the displaced are found, is regarded as a threat to the world order.1 Predominant theory has been that people must be tied to territory, and thus the durable policy solutions advanced are frequently about resettlement. Reality does not support either current forced migration theory or humanitarian aid practices, however, and an epistemological change in thinking about forced migrants is urgently required. This means looking beyond the nationstate— the purview of most academic work in this area— and beyond traditional barriers between disciplines, to give cross-disciplinary attention to the self-expressions and experiences of forced migrants. Furthermore, the forced migrant creates a dilemma in how aesthetic expression is displayed, as their forms of expression cannot be squarely identified with one state or another. The dispossessed and displaced are changed by their experiences in the grey zones between states, and their migrations cannot be neatly catalogued as belonging to one state or culture.

The Black British and Irish Press

2020 ◽  
pp. 396-413
Author(s):  
Olive Vassell
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
British Society ◽  
The Public ◽  
Black British ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
History Of ◽  
British Press ◽  
Definition Of

The black British press has since its inception in 1900 been rooted in several connected struggles. They are: the push for African and Caribbean independence, and the creation of a collective cultural and political black identity based in African roots; the formation of community and belonging for largely Caribbean immigrants following the post-World War II mass migration, and the reflection and reinforcement of identity for black British-born citizens outside of white political, social, economic and cultural hegemony. However, it has not only played a pivotal role in addressing issues of liberation and community building, but also in helping to define the public discourse surrounding the definition of what it means to be both black and British, not just for blacks, but for the entire British society. This chapter examines the history of black British newspapers and periodicals through these three distinct periods of social change and the critical role they have played in each of them.

Passports for Sale: How (Un)Meritocratic Are Citizenship by Investment Programmes?

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-337
Author(s):  
Odile Ammann
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
Immigration Law ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World

Abstract In recent years, citizenship by investment (CBI) and residency by investment (RBI) programmes have been burgeoning throughout the world, including in a range of European States. At first sight, such programmes are blatantly anti-meritocratic: they hinge on a person’s wealth, and not on her skills, potential, and intrinsic qualities. Yet upon a closer look, the public discourse that surrounds CBI and RBI is influenced by the same meritocratic conceptions as those that have been driving domestic citizenship and immigration law in the past decades. In this article, I take a step back from existing debates about CBI to argue that the concept of meritocracy is key to understanding, supporting, but also challenging contemporary immigration and citizenship law, including CBI. First, I analyse the merits—if I may say so—of the concept of meritocracy. I then show the limitations of using meritocratic arguments to justify the existence of CBI schemes.

Outsiders in their own nation: Electoral violence and politics of ‘internal’ displacement in Kenya

2017 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 226-240
Author(s):  
Roseanne Njiru
Keyword(s):  
Forced Migration ◽  
Human Security ◽  
Land Rights ◽  
Internal Displacement ◽  
Internally Displaced Persons ◽  
Nation State ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Internally Displaced ◽  
Electoral Violence ◽  
National Boundaries

This article foregrounds the overlapping continuum of local to global fault lines that structure the human security experiences of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Kenya. Drawing on data from the 2007–2008 electoral violence-induced displacement of ethnic minorities in the Rift Valley region, the article discusses how the intersections of ethnicity, national politics, land rights, and global humanitarian politics on displacement positioned IDPs as outsiders in their own nation and how this shapes their ability to live secure lives. By so doing, the study transcends nation-state border focused forced migration to question the relevance of dichotomizing IDPs and refugees, which shapes their protection. The author argues for the need to critically examine the less visible and fluid borders which displace people from their homelands in order to address the human security of all who are forced to flee from their homes regardless of whether they have crossed national boundaries.

scholarly journals Discourses of Vulnerability: Kiribati, I-Kiribati Women and Forced Migration Due to Climate Change

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Holly Mansfield
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
The People ◽  
Vulnerability To Climate Change ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
The Pacific

<p>Discourses of vulnerability abound in climate change literature; both particular types of places and particular groups of people are routinely considered especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Such discourses are employed by the international community in a technical manner—attempting to categorise current and expected degrees of impact on places and populations—and also to support the advocacy of urgent action to respond to climate change. This thesis examines the manner in which discourses of vulnerability are being invoked in discussions about the impacts of climate change and considers what impact this has on the people and places that are being described in this way. This research focuses specifically on Kiribati and I-Kiribati women and explores, in particular, how the debate about forced migration (as a possible outcome of climate change) has been shaped by vulnerability discourses. Both Kiribati, as a specific type of geographical entity, and women, as a category of people, have been described as having extreme vulnerability to climate change. It is not new for either Pacific Islands or women to be framed as “vulnerable”; however with the increased attention to climate change, vulnerability discourses are being used with such frequency that it is virtually impossible to find literature on the Pacific and women that does not reference their vulnerability. The use of such an emotive term raises questions. Who is naming and claiming vulnerability? What impact does such language have on those that are portrayed in this way? And, what are the long-term consequences of such terminology being used? Interesting questions are also raised regarding discursive similarities between presentations of vulnerable women and vulnerable islands. This thesis addresses these questions by analysing international literature on climate change and forced migration—especially that produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—between 1990 and 2007, and contrasting this with close analysis of public discourse from two vocal I-Kiribati advocates, Pelenise Alofa and Maria Tiimon, from 2009 to 2011. Conclusions are drawn from this analysis regarding the power relationships embedded in discourse, and the possible ramifications of language use for the construction of policy.</p>

scholarly journals Displacements of Memory

Refuge ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-17
Author(s):  
Philip Marfleet
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
First Century ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Nation State ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
Forced Migrants ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
Modern Era

The experiences of refugees—their “voices” and memories—have routinely been excluded from the historical record. With rare exceptions, refugees are absent from mainstream history: although specific episodes of forced migration may be carefully recorded and even celebrated in national histories, most refugee movements are ignored and their participants silenced. This article examines the practice of exclusion and its implications for historical research and for the study of forced migration. It considers experiences of refugees from the early modern era until the twenty-first century, mobilizing examples from Europe, the Americas, and South Asia, and offering comparative observations. It examines relationships between forced migrants and institutions of the nation-state, and the meanings of exclusion within ideologies of national belonging. It considers remedial measures and their implications for current efforts to ensure refugee voices are heard and understood.

scholarly journals Introduction

Refuge ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Carastathis ◽  
Natalie Kouri-Towe ◽  
Gada Mahrouse ◽  
Leila Whitley
Keyword(s):  
Forced Migration ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Migration Studies ◽  
Research Framework ◽  
In Trans ◽  
National Solidarity ◽  
Scholarly Attention

While the declared global “refugee crisis” has received considerable scholarly attention, little of it has focused on the intersecting dynamics of oppression, discrimination, violence, and subjugation. Introducing the special issue, this article defines feminist “intersectionality” as a research framework and a no-borders activist orientation in trans-national and anti-national solidarity with people displaced by war, capitalism, and reproductive heteronormativity, encountering militarized nation-state borders. Our introduction surveys work in migration studies that engages with intersectionality as an analytic and offers a synopsis of the articles in the special issue. As a whole, the special issue seeks to make an intersectional feminist intervention in research produced about (forced) migration.

Climate Change and Migration

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silja Klepp
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
Perceived Security ◽  
Global North ◽  
The Media ◽  
Governmental Institutions ◽  
And Migration

The topic of climate change and migration attracts a strong following from the media and produces an increase in academic literature and reports from international governmental institutions and NGOs. It poses questions that point to the core of social and environmental developments of the 21st century, such as environmental and climate justice as well as North–South relations. This article examines the main features of the debate and presents a genealogy of the discussion on climate change and migration since the 1980s. It presents an analysis of different framings and lines of argument, such as the securitization of climate change and connections to development studies and adaptation research. This article also presents methodological and conceptual questions, such as how to conceive interactions between migration and climate change. As legal aspects have played a crucial role since the beginning of the debate, different legal strands are considered here, including soft law and policy-oriented approaches. These approaches relate to questions of voluntary or forced migration and safeguarding the rights of environmental migrants. This article introduces theoretical concepts that are prompted by analyzing climate change as an “imaginative resource” and by questioning power relations related to climate-change discourses, politics, and practices. This article recommends a re-politicization of the debate, questions the often victimizing, passive picture of the “drowning” climate-change migrant, and criticizes alarmist voices that can trigger perceived security interests of countries of the Global North. Decolonizing and critical perspectives analyze facets of the debate that have racist, depoliticizing, or naturalizing tendencies or exoticize the “other.”

Beyond Justice: The Consequences of Liberalism for Immigration Law

1997 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Dauvergne
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
Immigration Law ◽  
Liberal Theory ◽  
Liberal Society ◽  
Change Of Direction ◽  
Immigration Laws ◽  
Canadian Immigration ◽  
Policy Direction ◽  
Public Consultations ◽  
Year 2000

In November 1994 the Canadian government released its Immigration Plan for 1995 and an immigration and citizenship strategy mapping policy direction until the year 2000. This strategy, developed after extensive public consultations, was the government’s response to increasingly contentious public discourse about immigration. The 1994 document was the government’s attempt to reorient Canadian immigration law and policy. The 1996 and 1997 Immigration Plans, tabled in November 1995 and October 1996 respectively, are consistent with the five year plan announced in 1994, demonstrating that the change of direction set out in 1994 has met at least some of the government’s objectives.This paper assesses the reorientation of Canadian immigration law contained in the 1995 Immigration Plan and accompanying documents. Much of the public debate about immigration concerns whether current immigration levels and policies are fair, or just. As Canada is a liberal society, it is appropriate to begin the search for standards of fairness—or justice—in liberal theory. But because liberal theory presumes a community and then explores theories of fairness and justice within that community, it does not yield a standard of justice which is useful for assessing changes in immigration law. Nor, I argue, can liberalism’s tenets be extrapolated to address this question. This conclusion leads to insights about the role of immigration law in liberal society and points to particular ways to assess this law. While other theoretical paradigms may contain ways of determining the fairness of immigration law, such paradigms are less useful in the Canadian setting, where liberal discourse is hegemonic and hence is the language in which debates about immigration law must take place to be immediately politically relevant. The first half of this paper examines liberal theory’s failure to address the justice of immigration laws, and evaluates attempts to extend classical liberalism to meet this challenge.

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