(In)visibility and Resistance: Evading State Categorization and Control

• In Event: Democratic State Power, Blind-spots, and Resistance

Abstract

Building on theories of performative citizenship and postcolonialism, this paper explores issues surrounding the recognition and legitimation of unauthorized residents within modern surveillance states. Surveillance strategies aim to expose certain factors or behaviors; and render invisible anything that can potentially delegitimize the state. The colonial logic underlying these surveillance strategies plays a central role in immigration policy and the policing of migrant communities. State-created categories can be used to control populations and justify different treatment for different groups. However, individuals that live within the nation’s borders without nation-state authorization appear to undermine state surveillance strategies by evading surveillance - choosing not to be seen - or by performing in a manner that either creates new categories or leads to mis-classification on the part of state actors. This phenomenon provides insight into acts of resistance and identity-formation in an increasingly surveilled society. The ability to elude the state, however, leads to anxiety on the part of the public as to which state subjects can be identified and properly categorized and who remains in the shadowy realms of the unknown. Even those supportive of immigrant rights and a path to citizenship often talk about the need for unauthorized residents to “come out of the shadows” in order to be seen, counted, and properly categorized by the watchful eye of the state. In this paper, I explore the battle over how unauthorized residents and migrants are characterized in public discourse and which personages are recognized and acknowledged by the state. I discuss ways in which state power is extended or frustrated, and how the elusive subject of surveillance – the unauthorized resident - shapes public discourse. While state recognition can lead to rights and protections, being discovered can also result in discipline and exile. I explore the threat and promise of being seen within the larger framework of state power, surveillance, and the myth of national identity.

Author

• Mary McThomas, University of California, Irvine