389
Global Immigration/Border Industrial Complex
Abstract Submissions Closed
RC31 Sociology of Migration (host committee)
Language: English
Session Type: Oral
The past few decades have witnessed a few changes with profound implications for the management of global population movement. First, an unprecedented number of people are crossing national borders in the post-cold war era. Second, the increase in human movement is accompanied by a growing anxiety about border security, especially in the context of post-9/11 global “war on terror”. Third, many countries have adopted policies and practices in line with neoliberal ideologies, including the privatization of public services. These trends lay the foundation for the emergence and expansion of the global immigration industrial complex, an interlocking system of political and economic interests that profits over the racialization and criminalization of migration and the commodification of migrant bodies. This vast system centers around but reaches far beyond national borders. Immigration scholarship has only begun to unravel the entangled relationships among the various institutions and actors involved.
Papers in this session will explore a variety of contemporary dynamics pertaining to the global immigration industrial complex, including, but not limited to, its driving forces, mechanisms, consequences, and the racialized and gendered lived experiences of those it impacts. The goal is to advance an intersectional understanding of these dynamics through a diversity of theoretical frameworks, methodological approaches, and geographic locations.This topic is of particular significance in the current historical moment given the revival of right-wing politics across the globe that rely on and fuel nativist/xenophobic and racist sentiments.