Contribution short abstract:

Based on my research in Niger, I argue that migration research can be both critical and actionable if a) it centers data practices to trace how they enact migration as an object of governance and b) pursues the ideal of benefitting others through collaboration with IOs, counter publics, CSOs.

Contribution long abstract:

Following discussions on reflexivity and my research in Niger, this contribution suggests two reorientations to may make migration research critical and actionable. First, I suggest focusing on data practices (Scheel et al. 2019) by International Organizations and states rather than migrants’ trajectories, orientations, or experiences. Examining these data practices shows how they enact migration as an object of governance and may uncover their inconsistencies and political effects. I will shortly illustrate this based on the bad data that the International Organization for Migration produces on trans-Sahara migration. Following the lens of material politics (Barry 2013, cf. Lambert 2023), it is central to include migrants’ critique of these practices in the analysis. Second, public anthropology’s ethical standard of “benefitting others” (Borofsky/De Lauri 2019) means centering a policy that not only prevents a further marginalization of migrants, but fosters an actual improvement of their situation. I point to three collaborative research practices that may contribute to this: a critical engagement with International Organizations, creating and sustaining counter publics like migration-control.info, and collaboration with civil society.