Activism and the Detention of Migrants

Download or read book Activism and the Detention of Migrants written by Tom Kemp and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-12-05 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an empirically grounded, critical engagement with the politics of immigration detention and deportation. Focusing on the constitutive tensions and political generativity within the activist practices of the anti-detention movement, this book examines the distinction between representational and post-representational political sensibilities. Representational politics centres on representing the interests of disenfranchised people to the state and public and operates primarily within the regime of immigration law. Post-representational politics focuses on working collaboratively with those in detention, to resist and challenge the deportation system. Since representational politics is the predominant political imaginary of migrant rights campaigning, the book focuses on illustrating and evaluating the role of post-representational politics. The book argues that the concept of post-representational politics is important for understanding and participating in radical opposition to state racism. This argument rests on the expanded possibilities it motivates of engaging with and resisting institutions that are poised to co-opt resistance; the attention it fosters to the situated power dynamics of political activities that collaborate with imprisoned people; and its sensitivity to the politically and conceptually generative capacities of everyday, embodied practices of resistance. To make this argument, this book employs innovative methodology to illuminate and engage with the practice-based thinking of activist movements about the concepts of solidarity, hospitality, witnessing and accountability. This book will be of interest to scholars and activists with interests in socio-legal studies of immigration and refugee law, as well as others in social movement studies, critical legal studies, border criminology and critical theory.