The Neglected Qualitative Effects of Remote Control

• In Event: 242 - Section on International Migration Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 19. Theory and Methods

Abstract

In 1924, the United States government shut down Ellis Island and other ports of entry, converting them into a deportation and detention centers, and passed measures to reduce further international arrivals. By doing so, the U.S. shifted from controlling immigration at points of entry to the remote control of immigration through consulates in foreign locations. Most nation-states soon followed. While this reduced the number of immigrants, the long-term qualitative effects of this spatial structuring of state immigration policy were far more significant in constraining movement of bodies through international space. This paper shows how remote control greatly altered the relational dynamics between states and potential migrants in many ways neglected by previous scholars. In particular, it more greatly individualized the process of evaluating immigrations, produced new distinctions of legal and undocumented immigrants, and made the process of reducing immigration flows less violent and visible to the public—effects of remote control under-examined in the scholarship on immigration. This paper offers a comparative-historical and spatial analysis of the shift in remote control in the U.S., Canada, and Australia to explore the processes by which remote control altered individuals’ perceptions and knowledge about international migratory opportunities. It thereby illustrates how remote control has reduced international migration that would otherwise exist in a world where such control did not exist.

Author

• Jacob Richard Thomas, University of California-Los Angeles