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- Convenors:
-
Julienne Weegels
(University of Amsterdam)
Irene Marti (University of Bern)
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- Formats:
- Roundtables Network affiliated
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 22 July, -
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
Short Abstract:
The intention of this roundtable is to scrutinize the localities and temporalities of carceral states, the notions of sovereignty and authority they hinge on, and resistance they produce. Drawing on close ethnographic explorations from across the world, we consider the intimate challenges they pose.
Long Abstract:
Over the past two decades, incarceration rates have increased heavily across the 'developing' world, while migrant detention has surged upon the levelling of incarceration rates in much of Europe and the United States. As those targeted for confinement continue to come disproportionately from historically impoverished and marginalized sectors, this has effectively meant that concerns for 'national' or 'citizen security' much serve to mask (or enhance) practices of criminalization, containment, confinement, and social relegation rather than promote inclusion and community-building. Yet we contend they have also intended to delegitimize particular forms of resistance and dissent.
This roundtable is concerned with how these 'criminalized Others' experience and deal with the divergent yet ever-expansive forms of confinement imposed on them. How do state agents enact exclusionary, punitive, or what might be seen as 'new' authoritarian agendas? How might these be resisted or subverted? Taking these together, the intention of this roundtable is to scrutinize the localities and temporalities of expanding 'carceral states', attached notions of authority and the resistance and dissent they produce. Building on close ethnographic explorations from across the world, we aim to interrogate and discuss how differing techniques and practices of confinement shape and are shaped by the search for, or denial of, justice and inclusion. **Given the ways in which the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated these issues, we also include reflections on the pandemic contexts of confinement.**
Speakers (in order of appearance): Hanne Worsoe, Ana Ballesteros, Julienne Weegels, Carolina Boe & Ulla Berg.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 22 July, 2020, -Paper short abstract:
New Australian refugee processing means many asylum seekers fail their refugee claims. This paper explores the strategies used by "unauthorised maritime arrivals" to navigate "necropolitical" policy, and Australia's carceral regime, to avoid the ever-present threat of refoulement.
Paper long abstract:
New Australian refugee processing means many asylum seekers fail their refugee claims. This paper explores the strategies used by "unauthorised maritime arrivals" to navigate "necropolitical" policy, and Australia's carceral regime, to avoid the ever-present threat of refoulement.
"Bordering", "externalisation" and incarceration are key features of Australian policy and legislation for those who arrive in Australia by sea as "unauthorised maritime arrivals". Australia's obligations to the UN Refugee Convention were removed from the processing of refugee claims in 2014. Many people seeking asylum now fail the new refugee processing. Facing the ever-present threat of detention and refoulement if they do not update visas regularly, asylum seekers must adhere to a stringent behaviour code that prevents them from speaking publicly about their situation. Further punitive policy acts a "necropolitical" force, removing the capacity to find regular work, and denying support, driving many to consider returning to their place of persecution.
Using fieldwork undertaken over three years at a voluntary asylum seeker hub, this paper explores the strategies asylum-seeking people develop to negotiate short-term visas, lack of income and avoid Australia's carceral regime mandated for failed asylum seekers, thus evading the ever-present threat of refoulement.
Paper short abstract:
The paper analyzes the racialized youth from African countries in immigration detention centres in Spain. I argue that detention practices can be understood as a strategy of Global North countries to subordinate racialized young people that challenge structural inequalities and neocolonial dynamics.
Paper long abstract:
This paper will focus on the racialized youth from African countries detained in immigration detention centres in Spain. Projects of global mobility are based on multiple, and frequently, intersected reasons such as adverse sociopolitical contexts, violent conflicts, the search of a better future, and poverty. For youth people, the decision to migrate can be also understood as a first step in the pathway to adulthood since it means autonomy and emancipation. However, countries from the Global North and South are increasing the strategies to restrict global mobility through the implementation of different practices of migration and border control, such as immigration detention. In Spain, those entering or living in the country without the legal status required can be confined in immigration detention centers. A significant percentage of detainees are racialized youths from North African countries (mainly Morocco and Algeria) or the Sub-Saharan region. In this paper, I would like to reflect on the impact of detention in the pathways to adulthood of racialized young people coming from these areas. I will argue that detention practices can be also think about as a strategy of Global North countries to subordinate racialized young people that, through making the decision to migrate, challenge structural inequalities and (post)/neocolonial dynamics. Furthermore, I will also highlight the multiple expressions of agency and the practices of resistance and survival displayed in response to institutional violence and coercion that take place inside immigration detention centres.