Precarious Legal Status Trajectories

Temporary and unauthorized mobilities are a feature of contemporary racial capitalism. In this context, interest in how non-citizens negotiate geographic and legal status trajectories across and within borders is expanding. This panel is prompted by the growing interest in analyzing how precarious legal status trajectories shape migrants’ long-term social and economic well-being and differential inclusion. These trajectories are multi-directional and temporally indeterminate and include periods with temporary and/or unauthorized status. Precarious legal status trajectories (PLSTs) are assembled at various levels, and by multiple actors and institutions (Landolt & Goldring 2019). This panel invites papers that make methodological, conceptual, and empirical contributions to research on PLSTs.

The panel invites paper proposals on themes that include, but are not limited to:

How PLSTs are produced / assembled in various jurisdictions and/or across borders; methodological challenges in quantitative data collection and specification; challenges in qualitative research; the sociolegal dimensions of PLSTs; the long-term implications of PLSTs for employment, health and other aspects of well-being; boundary work and negotiations of legal status bordering by institutional actors in various sectors; deservingness and legal status trajectories; ethical dilemmas in conducting and presenting data on this topic; etc.

The format will be a panel with presenters identified through the open call and by invitation.