THE AUTONOMY OF MIGRATION AFTER ITS SUMMER (original) (raw)
Related papers
Democracy presupposes the existence of a political body – the demos – which is the legitimate holder of the sovereign rights. The identity of the State, as well as the possibility of the existence of a democratic political regime, is founded upon the cohesion of this political body. In 19th and 20th centuries Europe, this cohesion was expressed through a certain idea of the 'nation', a constructed notion of cohesiveness of a territorial community. But what is becoming of this political body at a time when porousness of State borders allows for the massive intrusion of populations perceived as being fundamentally extraneous, therefore threatening (Girard 1982)? Which is the place of the immigrant in the Western democracies? And which are the means through which the State reacts when confronted to this type of identity threat? Our contribution will try to map the main interrogations that cross the relation between democracy, migrations and sovereignty in the 21st century. We will argue that, while the political body of the nation-State is fragilized by immigration, new ways of re-institute the cohesiveness of its political community are set up by the State in order to enhance its identity through difference with respect to others. These include the consolidation of external borders (a policy trend in the EU), but also enhancing the symbolic internal boundaries between “us” and “the others”. The recent discourse of the European leaders about the failure of the multiculturalism is an example of this attempt to re-institute difference.
Recuperating the Sideshows of Capitalism: The Autonomy of Migration Today
This text is a reflection on our 2007 contribution to the TRANSIT MIGRATION research project, ÒThe Autonomy of Migration: Ten Theses Towards a Methodology.Ó 1 Within the project, we analyzed the movements of migration and the migration policies deployed against them at the edges of the EU, in order to decipher the contours of a new regime of emerging migration politics. We were interested in investigating, from the perspective of social theory, what was symptomatic in movements of migration. We were interested in tracing the crossing of borders, the traversing of territories, the enmeshing of cultures, the unsettling of institutions (first among them nation-states, but also citizenship), the connecting of languages, and the flight from exploitation and oppression Ð interested, in other words, in investigating what migration teaches us about the conditions of contemporary forms of sociality, and that which goes beyond them. With this article, we pick up the thread and offer some furt...
Migrations: a transverse approach to the European Union
More than a million migrants and refugees have crossed into Europe during last year sparking a crisis and creating division in an EU under debate. Migration is not only refugee crisis and involves more things. It is important to understand it. The aim of this book is to summarize the migration phenomenon, its causes, factors, and types focusing on the relevant dates to the European Union. The first part of the book analyses the general framework of migration: the stages of the phenomenon, causes, and a revision of the main theories which explain people international movements. The second part focuses on the migration flows in the European Union: colonization movement, evolution and conventions, and agreements. The third part analyses the regulation under EU Treaties and Derived law. Finally, current crisis and the role played by EU institutions were described. This book constitutes an essential reference to understand the migration phenomenon and its implications in the case of EU. A new concern to a weaken EU Rabanal , González Sánchez
Migration to Germany: structures, processes, and discourses
Taking the example of Germany as a demographically ageing country, this paper starts with the assumption that international migration and a sound long-term integration of international migrants are crucial for sustainable population development. However, owing to the complexity of migration motives and individual migration decisions on the one hand, and the multidimensionality of external causes for migration and political regulations aiming to steer migration, on the other hand, the demand and supply side of migration can vary considerably. This paper reflects on recent important migratory movements to Germany (notably inner-European mobility after the expansion of the European Union (EU), and student and refugee migration in the wake of the economic and financial crisis) and con-comitant policy changes. Two main arguments are made along these empirical observations: first, the effective regulation of international migration in Germany as in any other European country can only be derived by harmonising migration regulations on a supranational level, and second, the issue of migration and its regulation touch on crucial topics in European and national public discourse such as the stabilisation of individual and group identities in turbulent times. Thus, as per the arguments put forth by this study, in order to solve actual imbalances in the European migration and asylum system, questions on social justice and common European values will need to be addressed throughout the European countries and at the EU level.
From Nation State to Migration State
Economics & Sociology, 2010
International migration and its consequences-the integration of newcomers to a society-has, in just a few years' time, developed from a purely demographic phenomenon into an issue that has altered the 'being' of the Western Nation-state in all its facets. The topic largely dominates the political debate in Flanders, Belgium and at the level of the European Union.