Material Interventions on the US-Mexico Border: Investigating a Sited Politics of Migrant Solidarity

Johnson, Leif

doi:10.1111/anti.12151

Cited by 24 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Other interpretations of solidarity in the international migration and refugee literature are less focused on the national scale but highlight bonds of empathy and common humanity. Corresponding research, offering interdisciplinary and disciplinary perspectives from anthropology, ethnography, geography and sociology, emphasizes compassion towards migrants and refugees in need of humanitarian assistance (Musarò and Parmiggiani, 2017) and the extension of hospitality towards strangers and guests (Johnson, 2015; Papataxiarchis, 2016; Chouliaraki, 2017; Trubeta, 2015). Related research grounds solidarity towards international migrants and refugees ‘in human dignity and equality’ (Kerwin, 2016: 91).…”

Section: Solidarity In Migration Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Migrant solidarities and the politics of place

Bauder

2019

Progress in Human Geography

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

International migration and refugee scholars have made extensive use of the concept of solidarity in light of the recent arrival of migrants and refugees in Europe and elsewhere. They observe multi-dimensional solidarity practices and interpret solidarity from a variety of disciplinary and conceptual angles with different philosophical underpinnings. In this review article, I assume a geographical perspective to argue for a Marxian-Hegelian understanding of solidarity as a process of subject formation. I illustrate how solidarity relates to a politics of place that shapes migrant struggles in urban contexts and that promise to facilitate Indigenous reconciliation and decolonization in settler societies.

show abstract

Section: Solidarity In Migration Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Migrant solidarities and the politics of place

Bauder

2019

Progress in Human Geography

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In his participatory research with the organization, Johnson shows how the border site itself is important for organizing and sustaining social movement activity. This is because the everyday lives of volunteers "are surrounded by material evidence of migration enforcement and filled with narratives and anecdotes about encounters with migrants or Border Patrol" (Johnson 2015(Johnson , p. 1255.…”

Section: Connecting Geopolitics and Biopoliticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Borders and bodies: siting critical geographies of migration

Gilmartin¹,

Kuusisto–Arponen²

2019

Handbook on Critical Geographies of Migration

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Migration scholars have theorised how physical spaces might be used as migration 'deterrents' and tools to counter resistance movements' solidarity efforts (Doty 2011;Johnson 2015;Squire 2014). Physical environments such as deserts, Doty (2011:607) suggests, are so harsh and have a 'raw physicality', that they can be 'put to use and function to mask the workings of social and political power'.…”

Section: Cities Neoliberalism and Biopoliticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban geographies of refugee journeys: Biopolitics, neoliberalism and contestation over public space in Belgrade

Obradović-Wochnik

2018

Political Geography

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

emerging across Europe. Informal settlements, where refugees experience 'violent abandonment' of host states (Davies et al 2015:93). Settlements existing outside of formal refugee camps have become an integral part of refugee journeys, but also form a focal point for host states' surveillance and regulatory practices directed at refugees. Whereas formal camps in transit countries act as 'stations' and 'stop over points' on migratory routes to Western and Northern Europe (Tsianos and Karakayali 2010:384), but they produce rationalities and effects which have a direct bearing on the refugees' presence in (or removal from) urban areas, as this paper discusses. This paper examines the urban and spatial politics of refugee journeys through transit countries; specifically, it considers the relationship between urban spaces adapted and used by refugees and solidarity activists, and the biopolitical rationalities of neoliberalism, the state and the EU border regimes. I argue that, for transit states along migratory routes, refugees in urban and public spaces play two converging roles: first, they are seen as bodies occupying commercial areas and second, they are subjects of migration and asylum policies, and as such are subjected to constant intervention, scrutiny, counting and management. I argue that the refugees' dual roles, as 'disruptors' of commercial development and migratory subjects, mean that state authorities are keen to not only push them away from public spaces, but also push them towards camps, for which national governments of transit countries receive EU funding. This differentiates refugee populations from other marginalised groups, such as the homeless: there are no comparable spaces designated for other urban 'undesirables' especially none which are funded by external/international actors. This is especially the case in migratory transit countries such as in South Eastern Europe, where the underdeveloped welfare sectors have poor provision for homelessness and other types of social marginalisation, but where conversely, refugee accommodation is relatively well funded by external actors such as the EU. Using Belgrade as a case study, I show how the state's commercial interests in the city centre property development became intertwined with its implementation of asylum policies requiring all refugees to reside in official, state-run camps, subsequently resulting in constant surveillance, conduct and regulation of refugee bodies in urban areas. The surveillance and regulation of refugee bodies are, in turn, carried out by a constellation of actors at state, city and municipal levels, and includes property developers, business owners, local residents, migration workers and the police. The constellation of actors often engages in seemingly banal practices restricting the use of public space, such as evictions, putting up fences, and demolitions of informal settlements, which are intended to encourage refugees to register themselves for residence in official camps. Refugees in urban areas are attended to by ...

show abstract

Material Interventions on the US-Mexico Border: Investigating a Sited Politics of Migrant Solidarity

Cited by 24 publications

References 48 publications

Migrant solidarities and the politics of place

Migrant solidarities and the politics of place

Borders and bodies: siting critical geographies of migration

Urban geographies of refugee journeys: Biopolitics, neoliberalism and contestation over public space in Belgrade

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About