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.