Paper short abstract:

Detention is often experienced by migrants as a contradiction: a form of punishment and incarceration in the absence of criminal charges. Drawing on fieldwork from Estonia, I show how this paradox – what I term punitive protection - is understood, experienced, and resisted by detainees.

Paper long abstract:

The detention of irregular migrants in the European Union has increased in scope and intensity in the years following the 2016 ‘refugee crisis’. Detention is usually categorised as an administrative practice, a benign routine that is necessary for the care of migrants and the enforcement of immigration laws. However, this formally ‘administrative’ process belies a unique contradiction: detention is often experienced by detainees as a form of punishment and incarceration in the absence of criminal charges. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork from Harku Detention Center in Estonia, I show how this paradox – what I term punitive protection - is understood and experienced by detainees. I give special consideration to the life projects of my informants, highlighting their agency and ability to emotionally navigate Harku’s confines. The contradiction that detention embodies also sets the stage for detainee resistance, negotiation, and self-expression.