The Everyday Politics of Undocumented Migrants

Welcome to our workshop The Everyday Politics of Undocumented Migrants in Copenhagen August 13-15.

Undocumented migrants are frequently treated as either a security issue that has to be managed, or a passive group requiring protection. Problematising this dichotomy, the workshop seeks to explore what political agency individuals grouped within the category of ‘undocumented migrants’ themselves possess. The workshop invites research that focuses on the everyday experiences and agency of undocumented migrants, with particular emphasis on the city-level, and how individuals may express and construct ‘belongness’ to a community despite lacking formal citizenship status.

Drawing on Hannah Arendt’s observation that rights can be realised only in a political community and Jacque Rancière’s theory that politics of human rights must be rooted in the practices of rights-holders the workshop asks how undocumented migrants themselves claim and utilize rights. Part of this agency includes how individuals navigate between multiple levels of regulation, which in the case of this workshop means the interaction between the city and other levels including national and international regulations impacting undocumented migrants.

Papers with either a theoretical approach or empirically oriented texts, about 20 pgs, are welcome (deadline will be by the end of June). Please send abstract (300 words) no later than March 15, to nordicmigration-conf@sfi.dk

Also see general guidelines for the 17th Nordic Migration Research Conference: http://www.sfi.dk/17th_nordic_migration_conference-12235.aspx