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Migration Borders Freedom

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Migration Borders Freedom Migration Borders Freedom International borders have become deadly barriers of a proportion rivaled only by war or natural disaster. Yet despite the damage created by borders, most people can’t – or don’twantto– imagine a world without them. What alternatives do we have to prevent the deadly results of contemporary borders? In today’s world, national citizenship determines a person’s ability to migrate across borders. Migration Borders Freedom questions that premise. Recognizing the magnitude of deaths occurring at contemporary borders worldwide, the book problematizes the concept of the border and develops arguments for open borders and a world without borders. It explores alternative possibilities, ranging from the practical to the utopian, that link migration with ideas of community, citizenship, and belonging. The author calls into question the conventional political imagination that assumes migration and citizenship to be responsibilities of nation states, rather than cities. While the book draws on the theoretical work of thinkers such as Ernst Bloch, David Harvey, and Henri Lefebvre, it also presents international empirical examples of policies and practices on migration and claims of belonging. In this way, the book equips the reader with the practical and conceptual tools for political action, activist practice, and scholarly engagement to achieve greater justice for people who are on the move. Harald Bauder is Professor in the Department of Geography and Environ- mental Studies, and the Graduate Program for Immigration and Settlement Studies (ISS) at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, and the founding Academic Director of the Ryerson Centre for Immigration and Settlement (RCIS). Routledge Studies in Human Geography This series provides a forum for innovative, vibrant, and critical debate within Human Geography. Titles will reflect the wealth of research which is taking place in this diverse and ever-expanding field. Contributions will be drawn from the main sub-disciplines and from innovative areas of work which have no particular sub-disciplinary allegiances. For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/series/ SE0514 56 Ageing Resource Communities New frontiers of rural population change, community development and voluntarism Edited by Mark Skinner and Neil Hanlon 57 Access, Property and American Urban Space M. Gordon Brown 58 The Production and Consumption of Music in the Digital Age Edited by Brian J. Hracs, Michael Seman and Tarek E. Virani 59 Geographies of Entrepreneurship Edited by Elizabeth A. Mack and Haifeng Qian 60 Everyday Globalization A spatial semiotics of immigrant neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Paris Timothy Shortell 61 Releasing the Commons Rethinking the futures of the commons Edited by Ash Amin and Philip Howell 62 The Geography of Names Indigenous to post-foundational Gwilym Lucas Eades 63 Migration Borders Freedom Harald Bauder 64 Communications/Media/Geographies Paul C. Adams, Julie Cupples, Kevin Glynn, André Jansson and Shaun Moores 65 Public Urban Space, Gender and Segregation Reza Arjmand Migration Borders Freedom Harald Bauder First published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2017 Harald Bauder The right of Harald Bauder to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Names: Bauder, Harald, 1969- author. Title: Migration, borders, freedom / Harald Bauder. Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa Business, [2017] | Series: Routledge studies in human geography Identifiers: LCCN 2016011104| ISBN 9781138195608 (hardback) | ISBN 9781315638300 (e-book) Subjects: LCSH: Boundaries--Political aspects. | Boundaries--Social aspects. | Border crossing. | Border security. Classification: LCC JC323 .B38 2017 | DDC 320.1/2--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016011104 ISBN: 978-1-138-19560-8 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-63830-0 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Taylor & Francis Books For everyone Contents List of figures viii Preface ix Acknowledgments xii 1 Introduction 1 PART I Diagnosis 15 2 Borders in Perspective 17 3 Access Denied! 36 4 From Utopia to Possibilia 53 PART II Solutions 73 5 Mobility and Domicile 75 6 Sanctuary City 93 7 Right to the Future 108 8 Conclusion 124 Index 129 Figures 1.1 Missing and dead migrants en route to Europe, 2015 2 2.1 Border line of Namibia 21 2.2 Texas as logo 29 4.1 The Island of Utopia, cover illustration of the first edition of More’s book, 1516 54 4.2 No Nation, No Border graffiti in Freiburg, Germany, 2015 65 6.1 A tour guide dressed in medieval garb in front of Freiburg’s Historical Merchant Hall 94 6.2 Protests against Bill HR4437, Chicago, 2006 101 6.3 Solidarity City campaign, Toronto, 2013 103 6.4 Toronto City Council, debate of “Undocumented workers in Toronto,” 2013 104 7.1 Annual May Day of Action, Toronto, 2013 114 Preface The title Migration Borders Freedom is a play on words. It can be interpreted as three nouns, in which case it describes the key concepts addressed in the book. The publisher was keen to have the book’s key concepts included in the main title to “signify the market.” Thus, a reader browsing the internet or bookshelf immediately knows that this book is about migration, borders, and freedom. The book’s title can also be interpreted as a sentence, in which case the word “borders” becomes a verb. There are at least two ways in which the title can be read as a sentence: first, it can mean that migration creates a border around freedom. This meaning signifies that migration does not lead to greater freedom but is rather a limitation thereof. It may apply, for example, to people who possessed the freedoms associated with citizenship, economic security, belonging to a community, and protection by the state in their countries of origin, but who lost these freedoms when they migrated to a different country where they lack citizenship, are denied access to the labor market, experience discrimination, and may even be treated as criminals. The second way of reading the sentence “migration borders freedom” is as “migration is on the border of freedom.” I visualize this meaning as a mediaeval European city that is bordered by a fortified wall. Inside the wall reside free citizens; in the surrounding hinterland live serfs who are bonded to their feudal lord. Migration can take the serfs to the gates of the city, which is as close as migration can bring them to freedom. However, it is up to the city’s gatekeeper to permit the migrants entry and thus to gain freedom. According to this meaning, migration is just outside of the realm of freedom. Migration isn’t freedom – it’s close to it but not quite there. The various ways of reading the title reflect the content of the book. On the one hand, the book addresses the problem of how borders and migration are often associated with the denial of rights and freedoms. On the other hand, it acknowledges the prospect that migration offers to gain freedom in the form of rights, protection, belonging, and economic security. The book also searches for solutions that enable migrants to leap over the metaphorical city wall that stands between them and freedom. In fact, the city will reappear as an important figure in the second part of the book, in which I discuss such solutions. x Preface In addition, the ambiguity of the title – that it can be interpreted in various ways – mirrors the approach I chose in this book to explore the concepts of borders, migration, and freedom. These concepts, too, can be interpreted in various ways, depending on the vantage point and interests of the observer. Engaging the various interpretations – and their contradictions – are an integral part of the way in which this book searches for alternative border and migration practices. Throughout the book, I use the terms migration and migrant. Some of my colleagues are critical of these terms and would argue that “mobility” is a better term to capture the complex patterns of the movement of people across the surface of the earth. Others may suggest that the term “migrant” represents oppressive state practices that created this category and imposed it on human beings in the first place. I decided nevertheless to use the term migrant because, to me, it represents a person who is not only mobile but also lays claims to rights and belonging. The people who Europeans enslaved in Africa from the 15th to the 19th centuries, whose rights were revoked, and who were shipped in chains to the Americas were considered a mobile commodity by the slave traders. These slaves were denied being migrants, which would have granted them their humanity, rights, and free will. By using the term migrant, I acknowledge the humanity, the rights to belong, and free will that people on the move possess. Migration Borders Freedom is an exploration of ideas. It not only critiques the suffering that border practices are inflicting on migrants; it also seeks practical as well as far-sighted solutions. The book is thus intended to equip its reader with the practical and conceptual tools for political action, activist practice, and scholarly engagement towards greater freedom and justice for migrants.
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