Abstract
This chapter explores the contribution that Foucauldian political sociology offers for our understanding of borders within the governance of migration. Foucauldian political sociology does not provide us with a theory of borders but rather an open-ended set of analytics of power and government. These analytics allow for a diagnosis of the changing forms of programmatic and political reason, techniques of power and subjectivity that are at play in our attempts to understand and control migration. In arguing that Deleuze’s idea of ‘control’ offers an important contribution to this aspect of political sociology – one that is especially pertinent to debates about neoliberalism – this chapter gives new meaning to the concept of ‘border control’.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
For instance, ‘in FY 2000, 52 % of immigrants were already in the [U.S.] when their visas became available. This means that being admitted as an immigrant does not equate with traveling to the United States to begin a new life, as was true in the nineteenth century’ (Martin 2004: 53, 55). On the decoupling of ‘immigration control’ and ‘border control ’, see Crowley (2003: 33–34) and Bigo (2000).
References
Adey, P. (2004). Secured and sorted mobilities: Examples from the airport. Surveillance & Society, 1(4), 500–519.
Agnew, J. (1999). Mapping political power beyond state boundaries: Territory, identity, and movement in world politics. Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 28(3), 499–521. doi:10.1177/03058298990280030701.
Andreas, P. (2003). Redrawing the line: Borders and security in the twenty-first century. International Security, 28(2), 78–111. doi:10.1162/016228803322761973.
Andreas, P., & Biersteker, T. J. (Eds.). (2003). The rebordering of North America. New York/London: Routledge.
Andreas, P., & Snyder, T. (Eds.). (2000). The wall around the west: State borders and immigration controls in North America and Europe. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Balibar, É. (2002). Politics and the other scene. London/New York: Verso.
Barry, A. (1996). The European network. New Formations, 29, 26–37.
Barry, A., Osborne, T., & Rose, N. (Eds.). (1996a). Foucault and political reason: Liberalism, neo-liberalism and rationalities of government. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Barry, A., Osborne, T., & Rose, N. S. (1996b). Introduction. In A. Barry, T. Osborne, & N. S. Rose (Eds.), Foucault and political reason: Liberalism, neo-liberalism and rationalities of government (pp. 1–18). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bernard, W. S. (1998). Immigration: History of U.S. policy. In D. Jacobson (Ed.), The immigration reader: America in a multidisciplinary perspective (pp. 48–71). Malden/Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Bigo, D. (2000). When two become one: Internal and external securitisations in Europe. In M. Kelstrup & M. C. Williams (Eds.), International relations theory and the politics of European integration (pp. 171–204). London/New York: Routledge.
Bigo, D. (2002). Security and immigration: Toward a critique of the governmentality of unease. Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, 27(1), 63–92. doi:10.1177/03043754020270S105.
Burchell, G., Gordon, C., & Miller, P. (Eds.). (1991). The Foucault effect: Studies in governmentality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Butler, J. (2004). Precarious life: The powers of mourning and violence. London/New York: Verso.
Crowley, J. (2003). Locating Europe. In K. Groenendijk, E. Guild, & P. Minderhoud (Eds.), Search of Europe’s borders (pp. 27–44). The Hague: Kluwer Law International.
Dean, M. (1999). Governmentality: Power and rule in modern society. London/Thousand Oaks/New Delhi: SAGE.
Dean, M. (2002). Liberal government and authoritarianism. Economy and Society, 31(1), 37–61. doi:10.1080/03085140120109240.
Deleuze, G. (1988). Foucault. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Deleuze, G. (1995). Postscript on control societies. In G. Deleuze (Ed.), Negotiations 1972–1990 (pp. 177–182). New York: Columbia University Press.
Diken, B., & Lautsen, C. B. (2002). Zones of indistinction: Security, terror, and bare life. Space and Culture, 5(3), 290–307. doi:10.1177/1206331202005003009.
Donzelot, J. (1988). The promotion of the social. Economy and Society, 17(3), 395–427. doi:10.1080/03085148800000016.
ECRE. (1999). Carriers’ liability: Country up-date on the application of carriers’ liability in European states. Brussels: European Council on Refugees and Exiles. http://www.refworld.org/docid/3c02740b4.html
Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and Punish: The birth of the prison (A. Sheridan, Trans.). London: A. Lane.
Foucault, M. (1984). Space, knowledge, and power. In P. Rabinow (Ed.), The Foucault reader (pp. 239–256). New York: Pantheon.
Foucault, M. (1990). The history of sexuality: Volume one. New York: Vintage.
Foucault, M. (1991). Questions of method. In G. Burchell, C. Gordon, & P. Miller (Eds.), The Foucault effect: Studies in governmentality (pp. 73–86). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Gilboy, J. A. (1997). Implications of “third-party” involvement in enforcement: The INS, illegal travelers, and international airlines. Law & Society Review, 31(3), 505–530. doi:10.2307/3054044.
Guiraudon, V. (2003). Before the EU border: Remote control of the “huddled masses”. In K. Groenendijk, E. Guild, & P. Minderhoud (Eds.), Search of Europe’s borders (pp. 191–214). The Hague: Kluwer Law International.
Hardt, M., & Negri, A. (2000). Empire. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Heyman, J. M. C. (2004). Ports of entry as nodes in the world system. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 11(3), 303–327. doi:10.1080/10702890490493518.
Hindess, B. (2001). The liberal government of unfreedom. Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, 26(2), 93–111. doi:10.1177/030437540102600201.
Huysmans, J. (1995). Migrants as a security problem: Dangers of ‘securitizing’ societal issues. In R. Miles & D. Thränhardt (Eds.), Migration and European integration: Dynamics of inclusion and exclusion (pp. 53–72). London: Pinter Publishers.
IRU. (2001). Round table on carriers’ liability related to illegal immigration: Brussels, 30 November 2001. Geneva: International Road Transport Union. http://www.iru.org/cms-filesystem-action?file=en_events_2001/Illegal2001.pdf
Isin, E. E. (2002). Being political: Genealogies of citizenship. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Jessop, B. (1998). The rise of governance and the risks of failure: The case of economic development. International Social Science Journal, 50(155), 29–45. doi:10.1111/1468-2451.00107.
Lahav, G., & Guiraudon, V. (2000). Comparative perspectives on border control: Away from the border and outside the state. In P. Andreas & T. Snyder (Eds.), The wall around the west: State borders and immigration controls in North America and Europe (pp. 55–77). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Martin, P. L. (2004). The United States: The continuing immigration debate. In W. A. Cornelius, T. Takeyuki, P. Martin, & J. Hollifield (Eds.), Controlling immigration: A global perspective (pp. 51–85). Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Neocleous, M. (2003). Imagining the state. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
O’Malley, P. (1996). Risk and responsibility. In A. Barry, T. Osborne, & N. Rose (Eds.), Foucault and political reason: Liberalism, neo-liberalism and rationalities of government (pp. 189–208). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Rajchman, J. (1999). Diagram and diagnosis. In E. Grosz (Ed.), Becomings: Explorations in time, memory, and futures (pp. 42–54). Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Rose, N. (1999). Powers of freedom: Reframing political thought. Cambridge/New York/Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
Salter, M. B. (2003). Rights of passage: The passport in international relations. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Salter, M. B. (2004). Passports, mobility, and security: How smart can the border be? International Studies Perspectives, 5(1), 71–91. doi:10.1111/j.1528-3577.2004.00158.x.
Sassen, S. (1999). Guests and aliens. New York: The New Press.
Simon, J. (1997). Governing through crime. In L. Friedman & G. Fisher (Eds.), The crime conundrum: Essays on criminal justice (pp. 171–184). Boulder: Westview Press.
Sparke, M. (2004). Belonging in the PACE lane: Fast border crossing and citizenship in the age of neoliberalism. In J. S. Migdal (Ed.), Boundaries and belonging: States and societies in the struggle to shape identities and local practices (pp. 251–283). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
UK Home Office (2004) Civil Penalty: Prevention of Clandestine Entrants. Vehicles. London: The Stationery Office. http://www.ebnlimited.co.uk/pdf/codeofpractice.pdf
Van der Ploeg, I. (1999). The illegal body: ‘Eurodac’ and the politics of biometric identification. Ethics and Information Technology, 1(4), 295–302. doi:10.1023/A:1010064613240.
Verstraete, G. (2001). Technological frontiers and the politics of mobilities. New Formations, 43, 26–43.
Veyne, P. (1997). Foucault revolutionizes history. In A. I. Davidson (Ed.), Foucault and his interlocutors (pp. 146–182). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Zolberg, A. R. (1999). Matters of state: Theorizing immigration policy. In C. Hirschman, P. Kasinitz, & J. DeWind (Eds.), The handbook of international migration: The American experience (pp. 71–93). New York: Russell Sage.
Acknowledgement
This chapter originally appeared in the European Journal of Social Theory, 9(2), 187–203, 2006. I am grateful to the publishers for permission to reproduce it here. This is a somewhat shortened version. Apart from that, and some minor editing, I have changed only the Introduction and the Conclusion. In the 10 years since I first wrote ‘Border/Control’ an entire field of critical border studies has matured, greatly advancing our knowledge of a number of the themes addressed here. However, I have resisted the temptation to update my sources. Instead I hope this chapter can have as one of its functions to show where a certain version of Foucauldian political sociology was at when critical border studies was in its infancy.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Walters, W. (2016). Border/Control. In: Amelina, A., Horvath, K., Meeus, B. (eds) An Anthology of Migration and Social Transformation. IMISCOE Research Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23666-7_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23666-7_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-23665-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-23666-7
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)