RT Article
T1 Report and deport: Public vigilance and migration policing in Australia
JF Theoretical criminology
VO 24
IS 2
SP 276
OP 295
A1 Walsh, James
LA English
YR 2020
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1734904062
AB Recent escalations in migration control involve the criminalization of non-citizens. In assessing this punitive turn criminologists have highlighted drastic expansions in state sovereignty and coercion. Focusing on the Australian context, this article examines a less noticed trend: the civilianization of migration policing. To facilitate irregular migrants’ removal the government has created tip-lines that encourage private citizens to conduct surveillance and anonymously ‘dob-in’ or report unlawful non-citizens. Approaching the initiative as a distinct responsibilization strategy that enrolls the entire citizen body as policing agents, this article explores its instrumental and symbolic goals, whether expanding official gazes or restoring an exclusive sense of national citizenship. Assessing the functions and effects of public vigilance reveals important tensions and ambiguities within the responsibilization process. In particular the case of participatory surveillance demonstrates how ‘adaptive’ approaches to order maintenance are not external to, but potentially promote and perpetuate, punitive forms of sovereign power.
K1 Anonymous informing
K1 Australia
K1 Borders
K1 Migration control
K1 Non-citizens
K1 Policing
K1 Responsibilization
K1 Surveillance
DO 10.1177/1362480618756363