Politics of (in)visibility: Governance-resistance and the constitution of refugee subjectivities in Malaysia

Abstract

This article explores the relationality of governance and resistance in the context of the constitution of refugee subjectivities in Malaysia. Whilst recognising their precarity, the article moves away from conceiving of refugees merely as victims subjected to violence and control, and to contribute to an emerging body of literature on migrant resistance. Its contribution lies in examining practices of resistance, and the specific context in which they emerge, without conceptualising power-resistance as a binary, and without conceiving of refugees as preconstituted subjects. Rather, drawing on the thought of Michel Foucault, the article examines how refugee subjectivities come into being through a play of governance-resistance, of practices and strategies that may be simultaneously affirmative, subversive, exclusionary, and oppressive. The relationality and mobility of this play is illustrated through an examination of practices surrounding UNHCR identity cards, community organisations, and education. Secondly, governance-resistance is conceptualised as a play of visibility and invisibility, understood both visually and in terms of knowledge production. What I refer to as the politics of (in)visibility indicates that refugee subjectivities are both constituted and become other than ‘the refugee’ through a continuous play of coming into being, becoming governable, claiming a presence, blending in and remaining invisible.

The externalization of border control in the global South: The cases of Malaysia and Indonesia

“…Refugees are generally invisibilized within Malaysian society except as a very select group, such as the Rohingya from Myanmar. However they, too, have been subject to periodic boat pushbacks, as Malaysia constantly changes its approach towards particular refugee groups from ‘a position of indifference to a posture of burden-sharing state of international migration or defender of fellow Muslims on the international stage’ (Ansems de Vries, 2016; Hoffstaedter and Perrodin, 2018: 197).…”

“Lady Frijoles”: las caravanas centroamericanas y el poder de la hípervisibilidad de la migración indocumentada

“…Se ha identificado el uso estratégico de la visibilidad e invisibilidad (Córdoba González de Chávez, 2018) en términos de cómo las personas se manifiestan y reclaman su derecho a existir dentro del espacio (estado nación) donde viven. Una política de (in)visibilidad se ve en la comunidad de migrantes/refugiados en Malasia (Vries, 2016), o en los que están en el proceso de asilo en Alemania (Bhimji, 2016). La visibilidad, entonces, se entiende como un logro, para que la población migrante/refugiada sea reconocida en sí misma y puede participar en los procesos que le afectan dentro del país donde busca seguir viviendo o quedarse.…”

Disjointed knowledges, obfuscated visibility. Border controls at the French-Italian Alpine border

“…Notably, migration scholarship has focused on the production of hyper-visibility and on the enactment of border spectacle (De Genova, 2013), on the dynamic play between visibility and invisibility (Ansems de Vries, 2016;Cuttitta, 2014;Mountz, 2015), as well as on migrants' "hidden from view" by the states (Mountz, 2015: 185; see also Atac et al 2016)l. Visibility is played out also for tracking and governing migrants at a distance and for surveillance purposes (Dijstelbloem et al 2017). In this regard, Foucault's statement, "visibility is a trap" (Foucault, 2012), well encapsulates the effects of control enacted through the implementation of visibility conceived as surveillance.…”