Migration, Citizenship, and the Legacies of Colonialism

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Colonial regimes and legacies play a heretofore-unexamined role in contemporary migration and refugee governance across the world. While scholars are increasingly acknowledging the importance of the “Global South” in understanding global migration politics, we have yet to embark upon a “historical turn” in the study of citizenship and mobility that would take into account imperial and colonial legacies. In response, this panel aims for an interdisciplinary discussion across comparative politics, international relations, sociology, and history in order to sketch a way forward in incorporating colonial processes into the study of migration in political science. It offers an ambitious discussion of the interplay between past, present, and future in Latin America, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia that will appeal to scholars of citizenship and migration, area studies specialists, as well as researchers of postcolonial politics. Importantly, it offers discussions of how (post)colonialism informs debates on migration networks, legal systems, citizenship regimes, the evolution of the social contract, as well as the ongoing race towards populating orbital infrastructures. With an emphasis on an interregional, interdisciplinary approach, this panel aims to encourage the development of a novel and timely research agenda that considers the complex legacy of colonialism as part and parcel of the study of migration politics today.

Sub Unit

• Division 52: Migration & Citizenship

Individual Presentations

• Colonial Ties and Refugees’ Migratory Pathways  - Rawan Arar, University of Washington

• The Transnational Social Contract in the Global South - Kamal Sadiq, University of California, Irvine; Gerasimos Tsourapas, University of Glasgow

• Criminal Laws, Colonial Subjectivity, and the Postcolonial State - Nandini Dey

Chair

• Erin Aeran Chung Johns Hopkins University

Discussants

• Kelsey P. Norman Rice University

• Lillian Frost Virginia Tech