Political Belonging in a Neoliberal Era: The Struggle of the Sans-Papiers

Abstract

This article argues that political belonging should be understood in the context of diverse spatial imaginaries which encompass but are not confined to the state. Engin Isin's approach to citizenship provides a theoretical grounding for this claim. By way of demonstration, the article focuses on the spatially reconfigured practices of the neoliberal state in relation to irregular migration. It shows how the policing of irregular migration sustains a logic of political belonging based on connections between state, citizen and territory. This logic is simultaneously compromised by transnational state practices including the exploitation of irregular migrant labour. Irregular migrants are contesting their positioning within these multidimensional statist frameworks that posit them as outsiders even while they are integrated into local sites of a global political economy. The struggle of the Sans-Papiers, a collective of irregular migrants in France, provides an example in this context. Their claims to entitlement also mobilize multiple dimensions of political belonging and provide insight into transitions in political community, identity and practice.

Atos de cidadania europeia: uma sociologia política da mobilidade

“…Mais especificamente, a noção de "atos de cidadania" busca enfatizar o papel constitutivo da ruptura, da desordem e do desvio no terreno político da cidadania europeia. Reivindicações de direitos por parte de refugiados e migrantes não documentados são exemplos de tais atos de cidadania (MCNEVIN, 2006;NYERS, 2006NYERS, , 2008SQUIRE, 2009). Mobilizar as tensões que a mobilidade traz para as formas co-munitárias de organização social pode ser interpretado, nesse sentido, como um ato de cidadania europeia no qual novos sujeitos políticos constituem a si mesmos pela representação da sociabilidade da troca como base para o "direitos de portar direitos".…”

Governing Migration from the Margins

“…Indeed, it is neoliberal economies that generate a demand for cheap, flexible, and compliant labour. The neoliberal state thus tacitly accepts the presence of precarious migrants in its territory, which it creates through its border and immigration policy regime while still flexing its sovereign muscles through, for example, deadly border spectacles to ensure its continued legitimacy (McNevin, 2006;Ong, 1999). This age of violent borders forcefully demonstrates how the border produces and is produced by the material and representative violence of population and resource division (Jones, 2016).…”

These fine lines: locating noncitizenship in political protest in Europe

“…Their ongoing participation and engagement is well documented and described throughout critical literature (cf. De Genova 2010;Johnson 2014;McNevin 2006;Nyers 2006;Rygiel 2011). Reflecting on circumstances in Italy, Oliveri sees migrant protest as potentially re-inventing the premises and conditions of being political (2012,795).…”