Evading the state gaze: civil society engagement with migration and forms of bordering.

• In Event: Criminology of Mobility. Panel 8. Deportation, return and undeportability

Abstract

In an attempt to examine the state responses to the movement of global populations, scholars have identified the amplification of border enforcement and immigration control – the implications of which are felt long after entry into the country of destination. In this paper, we draw on data derived from a comparative study on civil society engagement with migration and forms of bordering to understand the experiences and perceptions of migrant and minority communities towards various forms of state surveillance. We draw on the sociology of policing and the metaphors of ‘depth’, ‘weight’, and ‘tightness’ (Crewe 2021) to examine how different guises of state power are felt – not only at the border, but also through interactions with the welfare state, health services, and the punitive arm(s) of the penal and criminal justice system. Our analysis highlights how migrants have experienced surveillance in their past border-crossing journeys, how they come to understand and navigate the spectre of state surveillance, and the role of civil society organisations in supporting them. We argue that the anticipated surveillance experienced by such groups can lead them to consciously evade state institutions that may bring about future punishment or a myriad of harms and, in so doing, provide an understanding of the power of the state to reach into the lives of migrants and racialised minorities even amid the rhetoric of care and vulnerability.

Authors

• Bethan Loftus, Bangor University

• Martina Feilzer, Bangor University, Wales, UK