The Tactics of Asylum and Irregular Migrant Support Groups: Disrupting Bodily, Technological, and Neoliberal Strategies of Control

Abstract

States are exercising an increasing array of spatial strategies of migration control, including in the area of asylum migration. Drawing on interview data with thirty-five British and American irregular migrant and asylum support groups (MASGs), this article explores the spatial “tactics” (De Certeau 1984) employed by MASGs in response to strategies of migration control. We consider their infiltration of highly securitized physical spaces like detention centers and courts. We analyze their appropriation of control technologies and discuss their exploitation of inconsistencies within the neoliberalization of controls. These tactics highlight the importance of resistive actions that are carried out “within enemy territory” (De Certeau 1984, 37). As such, they represent a complementary set of actions to more radical forms of protest and consequently enrich our understanding of the diversity of forms of resistance.

国家正逐渐增加运用空间策略配置进行移民控管, 包含难民迁徙的区域。本文运用三十五个英国与美国的非正式迁徙与难民支持团体 (MASGs) 的访谈资料, 探讨这些团体回应移民控管策略的空间 “战术” (De Certeau 1984) 。我们考量这些团体对于诸如拘留中心和法院等高度安全化的实体空间的渗透。我们分析他们如何挪用控管技术, 并探讨他们如何利用新自由主义化控制中的不一致性。这些战术凸显出 “在敌人的领域上” 从事抵抗行动的重要性 (De Certeau 1984, 37) 。据此, 它们代表着对于更为激进的抗议形式的补充行动, 并因而丰富了我们对于多样化的抵抗形式之理解。

Para controlar la migración, los estados están echando mano del creciente número de estrategias espaciales asociadas a la migración por asilo. Con base en los datos de entrevistas de treinta y cinco grupos de apoyo británicos y norteamericanos al migrante irregular y a los asilados (MASGs), este artículo explora las “tácticas” espaciales (De Certeau 1984) empleadas por los MASG como respuesta a las estrategias utilizadas por el control migratorio. Consideramos la infiltración de espacios físicos altamente seguros por estos grupos, como son los centros de detención y los juzgados o cortes. Analizamos su apropiación de tecnologías de control y discutimos su explotación de las inconsistencias dentro de la neoliberalización de los controles. Tales tácticas relievan la importancia de acciones de resistencia efectuadas “dentro de territorio enemigo” (De Certeau 1984, 37). En esa condición esas tácticas representan un conjunto de acciones complementarias a formas más radicales de protesta y que en consecuencia enriquecen nuestro entendimiento de la diversidad que caracteriza las formas de resistencia.

Key Words:

• activism
• asylum
• migration
• resistance

关键词:

• 行动主义
• 庇护
• 迁徙
• 抵抗

Palabras clave:

• activismo
• asilo
• migración
• resistencia

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Economic and Social Research Council, grant number RES-000-22-3928-A. Thanks also to Richard Wright for editorial assistance and to the anonymous referees for their helpful suggestions. All errors remain our own.

Notes

1. Among several other tactics detailed were the development of collaborations and networks across the sector to counteract the effects of funding cuts and fragmentation. For a detailed account of responses by MASGs to austerity and government funding cuts see Gill et al. (2012).

2. It is beyond the scope of the article, however, to give a full analysis of the relationship between De Certeau's and Foucault's conceptions of power.

3. All such names are pseudonyms.

4. Based on 2005–2006 costs. Exchange rate: £1.00 = $1.617 (January 2007).

5. Equivalent to an increase from £2 billion to £3.8 billion. Exchange rate £1.00 = $1.517 (May 2013).