Neoliberal Governmentality and Consular Outsourcing: An Analysis on Visa Processing Arrangements

Abstract

Since the 2000s, consular services have not been the only arena that fits into the government's responsibility. This paper examines how the state transfers visa services to private companies that manage millions of visa applications each year. A theoretical focus on "governmentality" was undertaken by examining the discourses that shape the meaning, processes, and power configuration of consular outsourcing. Employing a content analysis, this study examines how political rationalities of governments are reflected in their discourses in terms of global visa policies, as well as how these discourses are embodied in public documents as technical devices. Based on analysis of tender documents, service level agreements, and the service providers' disclaimer statements, this study examines the role of governments and service providers, their thought processes, mechanisms, practices, and processes in the operationalization of consular outsourcing. This paper reveals three main outcomes. First, the change of political rationalities in visa policies pointed to a change in discourse (from visa restriction to visa liberalization), yet the visa processes have not liberalized or facilitated, and this discourse change only resulted in the inclusion of new actors, practices, and processes. Second, consular outsourcing created gaps in/between responsibility and accountability of governments and service providers to individuals. Third, these gaps entail depoliticization, individualization, and insecuritization in a neoliberal form and create concerns regarding responsibility and accountability. In light of this content analysis provided with this paper, a new area of politics that emerges with neoliberal governmentalism detaches individuals from the legal-political sphere and produces enterprise individuals who will become responsible for any risks associated with visa applications. This process signifies a policy that constructs the political rationalities of the state and individual based on the market principles. As such, depoliticization as a strategy of neoliberal governmentality becomes the central device of individual political rationality that is established visa processing arrangements.