RT Article
T1 The pains of being unauthorized in the Netherlands
JF Punishment & society
VO 22
IS 4
SP 534
OP 552
A1 Kox, Mieke
A2 Staring, Richard 1962-
A2 Boone, Miranda 1967-
LA English
YR 2020
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1761720333
AB Ethnographic fieldwork amongst 105 unauthorized migrants in the Netherlands shows that unauthorized migrants suffer from the pains of being unauthorized. These migrants feel punished and are severely hurt by - amongst others - the deprivation of healthy and secure living conditions, social and geographical mobility and citizenship. These migrants’ pains are caused by current restrictive migration controls, something the Dutch authorities could and should be aware of given previous research that provides similar insights. While the Dutch authorities do provide - the legally required - provisions for unauthorized migrants, we argue on the basis of Hayes’ proximity model that these authorities accept the collateral consequences of (possibly) being subjected to migration controls and purposely inflict these pains on unauthorized migrants. This means that migration control is not only experienced as punishment by those subjected to it, but that it is also intended to punish. The current system of migration control has as such expanded the reach of penal power. This implies that ‘punishment and society’ scholarship should also look beyond the borders of nation-states and criminal laws in order to understand contemporary punishment.
K1 Citizenship
K1 criminalization of migration
K1 deprivation of geographical mobility
K1 deprivation of health
K1 deprivation of security
K1 deprivation of social mobility
K1 pains of being unauthorized
K1 Pains of imprisonment
K1 Punishment
K1 unauthorized migrants
DO 10.1177/1462474519887357