Moments of Humiliation, Intimidation and Implied ‘Illegality’: Encounters with Immigration Officials at the Border and the Performance of Sovereignty

Abstract

This paper examines the role of border encounter—the set of interactions between potential entrants into a country and the country's immigration officials. These interactions are laden with power relations and can involve moments of interrogation, intimidation and humiliation on the side of immigration officials and negotiations and resourcefulness on the side of potential entrants. I argue that these sets of interactions, organised by the assemblage of actors, institutions, documents, technologies, discourses and affect, inform us about one of the ways sovereignty is performed by nation-states and their representatives. Moreover, potential entrants also mobilise particular strategies to negotiate performances of sovereignty and obtain entry.

Keywords:

• Border Encounter
• Assemblage
• Sovereignty
• Migrant Illegalisation
• Humiliation

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Patricia Landolt, Francisco Villegas, Tanya Taberman, Geraldina Polanco, Gunjan Sondhi, John Carlaw and the two anonymous reviewers for the generous feedback they provided to different drafts of this paper.

Notes

1. While one could call these performances, I am reluctant to do so given the negative discourses that circulate about border crossers (as ‘fraudulent’ or ‘deceitful’), which are part and parcel of migrant illegalisation. For this reason, I refer to the enactment of narratives potential entrants believe immigration officials expect as strategies and negotiations.

2. In fact, this may be one reason why there is a discrepancy between border enforcement and sovereignty discourses on the one hand and the number of entrants allowed entry on the other (the latter outweighs those who are refused).

3. This was Rebeca's strategy because while border officials may have deduced that Rebeca would overstay, it is unlikely that they would know that her husband was already in Canada, so they would be unable to prove it. Eduardo also had a different last name than she did. In our interview Rebeca did not mention whether one of the documents she brought with her was a marriage certificate, which may have allowed officials to identify he had been in Canada in the past. However, at the time of her entry, Canada had not exit controls, and therefore border officials had no way of knowing whether Eduardo was still in the country (Daubs 2010).