Paper short abstract:

This contribution analyzes the experiences of non-citizens detained in French and US penal institutions and immigration detention centers, and of their families, as they try to master the uncertainties related with deportation, both individually and collectively.

Paper long abstract:

For the past thirty years, many states such as France or the United States of America have passed laws that have increasingly penalized offenses related to migrant illegality, and have expanded the uses of immigration detention and deportation. Furthermore, more and more immigrants who formerly held legal statuses have become illegalized, as a result of changing laws and as a consequence of a criminal conviction or of changes in their situation, such as losing their job, their home, or getting a divorce. These processes of production of illegality and deportability of former resident non-citizens have had a major impact on the lives of numerous citizens, notably within their families.

This contribution draws on ethnographic fieldwork and biographical interviews carried out over a period of five years with non-citizens facing deportation who are, or who have been detained, in French and US penal institutions and immigration detention centers, as well as with their families and members of their communities. It describes the experiences of spouses, children and other family members of deportees as they have had to re-organize their lives in the prospect of the detention, incarceration, and the risk of a possible future deportation of a family member. While the contribution describes some of the consequences of these policies on non-citizens and citizens alike, its main focus is on the individual and collective actions that are mobilized to master the uncertainties related with deportation, and the potential political force that these can foster.