The Governmentality of Transnational Migration and Security: The Making of a New Subaltern

Abstract

Historical and comparative studies have demonstrated that migration (as human mobility across geographical areas and regions) is a dynamic process, interacting with livelihood systems, regulatory norms and security-enhancing institutions, both materially and subjectively (Hoerder 2002; Schrover/van der Leun/Lucassen/Quispel 2008). Migration cannot be understood in truncated ways, in parts and fragments of reality rather than the totality of the universe in which the phenomenon rose, became institutionalized and transformed at different historical moments. A core issue today is the gradual practical and conceptual erosion of the legal boundaries set in the Westphalian framework of inter-state relations and the emergence of fragmented modes of regulation of the movement of people across border of nation-states. This reflects the inability of governments to reconcile the tension within global capitalism, which on the one hand prises national economies open and on the other remains unaccountable for the adverse human consequences of this openness. The architecture of global governance of migration today shows how diverse rationalities have played out one against another to produce a situation in which growth-driven norms are taking over from rights norms based on human dignity enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This calls for a reconsideration of migration and security as two key areas of state prerogative, in light of their transnational and trans-local implications.