Policing Immigrants as Politicizing Immigration: The Paradox of Border Enforcement

摘要: In the global North, borders have experienced a renaissance in last 25 years. Efforts to “get tough” on undesirable immigrants resulted growing concentration of power by national enforcement agencies and devolution responsibilities thousands civil servants, local officials, others working directly with immigrants. Concentrating powers immigration has been seen as necessary means reduce access legal residency, reinforce external borders, remove unauthorized settled territories. Making bigger more powerful was however not sufficient plugging many holes that allowed migrants enter settle these countries. Plugging precipitated frontline public agencies, non-profit organizations; agents whose proximity them function effective relays central state (Miller Rose 1990; Zolberg 1999; Balibar 2004; Coleman 2007). For newly deputized border enforcers, detecting, forbidding, exposing “illegal aliens” become “banal” (see, Arendt 1977) part their everyday work practices.