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Paper short abstract

This paper aims to explore the entanglements of the symbolic and material in migration and citizenship politics. I ask: in what ways do identification and surveillance infrastructures inform shared ways of reasoning about migration and borders, and vice versa?

Paper long abstract

With this paper, I aim to deepen the scholarly engagement with the relationship between materiel arrangements and ways of reasoning in Critical Migration and Border Studies. The influence of the 'material turn' in cultural theory has opened new research perspectives on migration governance. A fundamental assumption here is that the impact of material practices differs from that of discursively shared ideas. This paper aims to explore the entanglements of the symbolic and material in migration and citizenship politics. Media theory proposes that format shapes content in specific ways. I ask: in what ways do identification and surveillance infrastructures inform shared ways of reasoning about migration and borders, and vice versa?

To approach this question, I first theoretically examine the relationships between reasoning and material arrangements by discussing relevant theoretical concepts and their applicability to the context of migration and border research. Second, drawing on the analysis of public discourse and government programmes in Germany in the 1990s, the paper illustrates how ways of reasoning over asylum migration justified and framed the introduction of biometric identification methods. The paper, in turn, aims to explore further empirical sites to study how migration and bordering actors rely on data infrastructures and devices to establish shared ways of reasoning. For this part, I draw on document analysis of grey literature and insights from participant observation at a refugee registration facility in Germany (2021).

Keywords: Material-symbolic perspective, data infrastructures, migration and border regimes, ways of reasoning.