Migration and Mobility in Contemporary Europe: The Users and Uses of Power

Abstract

The prevalence, scope and dimensions of migration have intensified in contemporary Europe. The panel will discuss how this has created multiple and complex mobility statuses, rights, actions, regimes and structures, amounting to a gradual continuum between full exclusion and full inclusion of migrants, instead of a simple dichotomy between the two. Contemporary migration is elaborately researched in different disciplines, such as political science, sociology, economics, anthropology, law, history, etc. They study the European or national mobility regimes and structures and the linkage with migration patterns, (supra)national law and the effects on the characteristics, experiences and trajectories of migrant individuals/groups. However, there is also increasing interest in how these individuals and groups act within and/or surpass their different mobility categories. Some of this research rightfully shows that there is not just a simple dichotomy between inclusion and exclusion of migrants, but that more complex and continuous processes are taking place creating a gradation between full exclusion and full inclusion. This panel wants to engage with research from every discipline, focusing on these complex processes, while asking the critical question of where and how power operates within them. The explicit identification of power is a crucial but difficult exercise, as power can be hidden, complex, perverse, or fragmented, both in terms of the uses of power and their effects as in terms of the users of power and their contexts. Different uses of power can be identified in resistance by individuals or groups, mass mobilization, governmentality practices, governance, structural (economic, political, natural) forces, media discourses, etc. The users of power can be located beyond the state (supranational political and judicial institutions), within the state (civil servants, police, organizations authorized by the state, municipalities, national courts), in the state (national government) or separate from the state (individuals, ngo’s, communities, companies, media). As power relations are at the heart of the dynamics of contemporary migration in Europe, it is crucial to both analytically and theoretically grasp the users and uses of power in all their contemporary complexity. Therefore, we invite papers that explicitly address power in their analyses, theoretically and/or empirically, noting that we are very open towards the used conceptualization of power. We welcome papers from all disciplines and using different methods, as long as the analysis is about migration and its relation to the users and uses of power.

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