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Unauthorised migration beyond structure/agency? Acts, interventions, effects

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Squire, Vicki (2017) Unauthorised migration beyond structure/agency? Acts, interventions, effects. Politics, 37 (3). pp. 254-272. doi:10.1177/0263395716679674

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/0263395716679674

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Abstract

What are the most appropriate conceptual tools by which to develop an analysis of ‘unauthorised migration’? Is ‘migrant agency’ an effective critical concept in the context of a so-called European migration ‘crisis’? This article reflects on these questions through a detailed exploration of the ‘structure/agency debate’. It suggests the need for caution in engaging such a conceptual frame in analysing the politics of unauthorised migration. Despite the sophistication of many relational accounts of structure-agency, the grounding of this framework in questions of intentionality risk reproducing assumptions about subjects whose decision to migrate is more or less free from constraint. The article argues that such assumptions are analytically problematic, because they involve a simplification of processes of subjectivity formation. Moreover, it also argues that they are they normatively and politically problematic in the context of debates around unauthorised migration, because discussions of structure/agency can easily slip into the legitimisation of wider assumptions about the culpability and/or victimhood of people on the move. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s theorisation of subjectification, the article proposes an alternative analytics of acts, interventions and effects by which to address the politics of unauthorised migration in the midst of a so-called ‘migration crisis’.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration
Divisions: Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Emigration and immigration -- European Union countries, Illegal aliens -- European Union countries
Journal or Publication Title: Politics
Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd.
ISSN: 0263-3957
Official Date: 1 August 2017
Dates:
DateEvent
1 August 2017Published
1 December 2016Available
3 October 2016Accepted
Date of first compliant deposit: 7 November 2016
Volume: 37
Number: 3
Page Range: pp. 254-272
DOI: 10.1177/0263395716679674
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Access rights to Published version: Restricted or Subscription Access
Funder: Leverhulme Trust (LT). Research Fellowship, Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC)
Grant number: RF-2015-545 (LT), ES/N013646/1
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