In person icon The Nexus Between Vulnerability and Productivity: Tracing the Notions of Deservingness

Abstract

This panel brings together multidisciplinary perspectives on the nexus between vulnerability and productivity. It critically explores the intersection of these concepts in migration policies, citizenship and migrants’ (political) participation, engaging with both theoretical and empirical approaches to unpack civic precariousness. It builds on and extend the concepts of "performance-based deservingness" and "promising victims" (Chauvin and Garcés-Mascareñas 2014, 2018), which highlight the tension between migrants' need to demonstrate vulnerability while also showcasing their potential to become productive, assimilable citizens (Welfens 2023). While this dynamic is valid across migrant groups and diverging migration experiences, it is intensified for asylum seekers, refugees and illegalized migrants, who face heightened pressures to obey laws, integrate into the labor market, and conform to societal norms. Nonetheless, the discursive power of ''(un)deservingness" in dividing migrant populations should also be contested through research that explores political economic and symbolic contexts producing such experiences for diverging migrant groups (Holmes and Castañeda, 2016). Consequently, we seek to deepen the discussion by raising questions that further unpack this tension. How do the dynamics between vulnerability and civic performance unfold in relation to the tension between deservingness and Arendt's right to have rights? How do the expectations placed on migrants to be productive and "good citizens" conflict with the simultaneous expectations that they should not displace local workers or be too visible in public spaces – especially when it comes to contesting migration policies? Finally, how does time (re)shape these tensions as migrants exercise agency, and behave or are perceived as increasingly less vulnerable?

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