Paper short abstract:

This paper suggests a new angle on externalization through investigating its capacity to "create" governable subjects (Foucault, 2007, Kotef 2015). It argues that this occurs through "subjectification" (Focault 2007) processes which aim to produce the "nationalized" migrant (Mongia, 1999).

Paper long abstract:

Research on externalisation has focused on its impacts on shifting power relations between states (Paoletti 2011, Van Crieckinge 2010), on changing borderscapes (Casas Cortes et. Al. 2015, Mezzadra & Neilson, 2012, Tsianos. Et al., 2009) and on the formulation of third countries' migration policy interests (Adam et al forthcoming, Mouthaan 2019, Natter 2018). This paper suggests a new angle on externalization policies. It sets out to investigate their capacity to "create" governable subjects (Foucault, 2007, Kotef 2015) beyond borders. It argues that this occurs through "subjectification" (Focault 2007) processes which aim to produce the "nationalized" migrant (Mongia, 1999). Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Niger in March 2018 three modes through which projects placed in the 'externalisation assemblage' (Casas Cortes et al 2015) work towards subjectifying mobility are identified. Firstly, strengthening state capacities to embrace populations and making the nationalized subject, secondly, migratizing mobility, and thirdly, the making the data migrant (Ross 2007). Arguing that categories produced through subjectification processes derive from mobile populations' racialized exclusion in destination countries, this lens on externalisation opens channels to investigate the intersection between biopolitics and geopolitics (Hyndman 2012). It places externalization within post-colonial politics of population management between "metropolis and centre" (Mezzadra 2006) and repoliticises (Pécoud 2015) apparently neutral migration vocabulary.