5YYD0012 Migration and Development

2017/18 Term 2

Value: 15 credits
Convenor: Fiorenza Picozza
Office hours: Thursday 2-4pm, fiorenza.picozza@kcl.ac.uk
Teaching arrangement: Weekly two-hour session (Fri 1-3pm S-2.08)
Assessment: 1 Examination (2 Hours) (50%), 1 Essay (1,500 Words) (50%), Formative
assessment (500 words)

Aims and objectives:

This module aims to problematise the increasing relevance of national borders in the
postcolonial world order, specifically relating to their impact on the mobility and rights of
migrants originating from ‘developing countries’. Through an interdisciplinary approach
(including development studies, anthropology, sociology, critical theory and cultural
studies), the module introduces students to postcolonial critiques of both development and
migration studies and interrogates representations of the ‘global South’ and the ‘global
North’, with a particular focus on the irregularisation of migration.
Students will be introduced to a variety of perspectives on contemporary migration,
mobility and displacement, drawing on theoretical engagements, empirical studies, NGO
reports and visual media. Students will be stimulated to critically engage with and
deconstruct traditional theories and analytical tools of migration and border studies; as well
as critically reflect on migration and asylum policy, state-led migration management, NGO’s
developmental and humanitarian aid and civil society’s spontaneous solidarity initiatives.

Learning outcomes:

By the end of the module students will have:

• learnt to critically engage with and deconstruct structures, norms, ideologies,

binaries, and categories;
• acquired critical knowledge of migration politics, in terms of factors and modes of
contemporary migration movements, as well as policy and management issues;
• Understood how contemporary migration is situated in global processes of
development, inequality, and globalization;
• Developed a knowledge of contemporary debates on migration issues;
• Gained confidence in critically analysing state and international policies on
migration;
• Have been exposed to a range of research methods, including quantitative,
qualitative and participatory techniques, relevant to the study of migration.

Employability skills practices in this module:

Critical thinking; reading and appraising theory; using multiple sources; interdisciplinary
thinking; writing a coherent argument.
Weekly Outline 2017/18:

Week Title + suggested topics Tutor

Week 1 Postcolonial approaches to Migration, Borders, and Development FP
Week2 Bordering Practices and Border Regimes: the Irregularisation of Human FP
Mobility
Week 3 Forced Migration, Asylum, Refugee Crises and Humanitarianism FP
Week 4 Developmental aid to Transit Countries and the Externalisation of FP
Border Controls
Week 5 Circular Migration, Migrant Labour, and Exploitation FP
Week 6 Migrant Illegality, Detention and Deportation FP
Week 7 Development Aid to Potential Migrants and Returnees FP
Week 8 Solidarity and Migrant Self-Organisation FP
Week 19 Citizenship, Race and Ethnicity FP
Week 10 Final Debate: Who counts as a migrant? FP

Recommended background readings

- Mezzadra and Neilson. 2013. Border as Method or the Multiplication of Labor. Durham:
Duke University Press.
- Castels, S., De Haas, H.(2013) Age of Migration: International Population Movements
in the Modern World, Palgrave McMillan.
- MCKeown, A. 2011. Melancholy Order: Asian Migration and the Globalization of Borders.
New York: Columbia University Press.
- De Genova, N. 2017. The Borders of "Europe": Autonomy of Migration, Tactics of
Bordering. Durham. Duke University Press.
- Geiger, M., and Pécoud, A. 2010. The politics of International Migration Management.
Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Week 1 – Migration, Borders and Development

This introductory session situates both Migration and Development as problems emerging
in a post-colonial world order, in connection to the increased relevance of national borders.
The session will deal with the spatial imaginaries underpinning the production of
‘developed’ and ‘developing’ countries and their impact on theorisations and common
understanding of what is ‘migration’. This lecture will also offer students an overview of the
entire module, and will make suggestions as to how they should approach the literatures
and tasks set throughout the course.

Required:
- Geiger, M. and Pecoud, A. 2013. ‘Migration, Development and the “Migration and
Development Nexus”’. Population, Space and Place 19(4): 369-374.
- McEwan, C. 2009. Postcolonialism and Development. London; New York: Routledge.
Introduction pp. 1-33

Additional:
- Duffield, M. 2016. ‘Racism, Migration and Development: the Foundations of Planetary
Order’. Progress in Development Studies 6(1): 68-79.
- Novak, P. 2016. ‘The Double Pincer of Migration. Revisiting the Migration and
Development Nexus through a Spatial Lens’. Colombia Internacional 88: 27-55.
- Castels, S., De Haas, H.(2013) Age of Migration: International Population Movements
in the Modern World, Palgrave McMillan. (Introduction and Conclusions).
- Hall, S. 1992. ‘The west and the rest: Discourse and power’. In Formations of modernity,
ed. S. Hall and B. Gieben. Cambridge: Polity Press.
- Goldberg, D. T. 1993. ‘Racial Knowledge’ in Racist Culture: Philosophy and the Politics of
Meaning. Oxford: Blackwell.
- Sylvester, C. 1999: ‘Development studies and postcolonial studies: disparate tales of the
“Third World”’, Third World Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 4, S. 703-721.
- Kapoor, I. 2008. The postcolonial politics of development. Abingdon: Routledge.
- Xiang, B., Black, R., Collyer, M., Engbersen, G., Heering, L. and Markova, E. (2006)
‘Migration and Development: Causes and Consequences’, in Penninx, R., Berger, M. and
Kraal, K. (eds.), The Dynamics of International Migration and Settlement in Europe,
Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 41-64

Questions to think about:

- What is the colonial legacy of both ‘development’ and ‘migration’ discourses?
- What is the relation between national borders and migration?
Week 2 – Bordering Practices and Border Regimes: the Irregularisation of Human Mobility

This session addresses the proliferation of borders and bordering practices after the end of
the Cold War and looks at its impact on the irregularisation of human mobility, in particular
referring to migrants originating from ‘developing’ countries, who are subjected to ever
harsher visa requirements. This week lecture will particularly dwell on the emergence of a
‘European border regime’ and on securitisation and humanitarianism as bordering practices
targeting irregular migrants through a mixture of care and control.

Required:
- Mezzadra and Neilson. 2013. Border as Method or the Multiplication of Labor. Durham:
Duke University Press. Chapter 1, The Proliferation of Borders, pp. 1-25.
- van Houtum, H. 2010. “Human blacklisting: the global apartheid of the EU’s external
border regime”. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 28.

Additional:
- Johnson, C. and Jones, R. 2014. ‘Where is the Border?’ in Placing the Border in Everyday
Life. Farnham: Ashgate.
- Basaran, T. 2010. Security, Law, and Borders. London: Routledge.
- Tsianos, V., and Karakayali, S. 2010. ‘Transnational Migration and the Emergence of the
European Border Regime: An Ethnographic Analysis’, European Journal of Social Theory
13(3): 373-387.
- Rumford, C. 2006. ‘Theorising Borders’. European Journal of Social Theory 9(2): 155-169.
- McKeown, A. 2008. Melancholy Order: Asian Migration and the Globalization of Borders.
New York: Columbia University Press.
- Feldman, G. 2012. The migration apparatus : security, labor, and policymaking in the
European Union. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
- Balibar, E., 2004. ‘At the Borders of Europe’, in Étienne Balibar, We, the People of Europe?
Reflections on Transnational Citizenship (Princeton University Press).
- Walters, W. 2015. ‘Reflections on Migration and Governmentality’. movements. Journal für
kritische Migrations- und Grenzregimeforschung 1(1).

Questions to think about:

- What is the difference between state borders and bordering practices/processes?
- How has the proliferation of borders impacted on human mobility?
Week 3 - Forced Migration, Asylum, Refugee Crises and Humanitarianism
‘Forced’ migration has become one of the most salient issues of contemporary migration
politics and discourse; in 2015, the so-called ‘Refugee crisis’ so the largest influx of refugees
to Europe since World War II. This session critically engages the figure of the ‘refugee’, the
idea of ‘crisis’ and the relative humanitarian responses by both state and non-state actors.
Moreover the session aims to show how asylum has become one of the most prominent
features of the European border regime, through the division of ‘legitimate/good’ migrants
from ‘illegitimate/bad’ migrants.

Required:
- Malkki, L. 1996. ‘Speechless Emissaries: Refugees, Humanitarianism, and Dehistoricization’.
Cultural Anthropology 11(3): 377-404.
- Fiddian- Qasmiyeh, E. 2016. ‘Repressentations of Displacement from the Middle East and
North Africa’. Public Culture 28:3.

Additional:
- Malkki, L. 1995. ‘Refugees and Exile: from refugee studies to the national order of things’,
Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 25, Issue 1, (1995), pp. 495-523.
- Agier, M. 2010. On the Margins of the World: the Refugee Experience Today. Cambridge:
Polity Press.
- Cabot, H. 2014. On the Doorstep of Europe: Asylum and Citizenship in Greece. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press.
- Fontanari, E. 2015. ‘Confined to the threshold. The experiences of asylum seekers in
Germany’, CITY 19(5): 709–721.
- Picozza, F. 2017. ‘Unthinking displacement, illegality and refugeeness within Europe's
geographies of asylum’ in De Genova, N. 2017. The Borders of "Europe": Autonomy of
Migration, Tactics of Bordering. Durham. Duke University Press.
- Scheel, S. and Squire, V. 2014. ‘Forced Migrants as Illegal Migrants’ in Fiddian-Qasmiyeh,
E., Loescher, G., Long, K. and Sigona, N. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 188-199.
- Zetter, R. 2007. ‘More labels, fewer refugees: remaking the refugee label in an era of
globalization’. Journal of Refugee Studies 20: 172–192.
- Fassin, D. 2007. 'Humanitarianism: A Nongovernmental Government', in Feher, M. (eds.)
Nongovernmental Politics, New York: Zone Books, 149-160.
- Walters, W. 2011. ‘Foucault and Frontiers: Notes on the Birth of the Humanitarian Border’
in Bröckling, U., Krasmann, S. and Lemke, T. (eds.) Governmentality: Current Issues and
Future Challenges. New York: Routledge: 138-164.

Questions to think about:

- What’s the critical potential of the ‘forced migration’ lens? What are its shortcomings?
- Why is asylum so crucial to contemporary border regimes?
Week 4 - Developmental aid to Transit Countries and the Externalisation of Border
Controls

This week’s session focuses on the ‘externalisation’ of borders and migration controls,
looking at different examples of irregular migratory routes. Students will be introduced to
the process of border displacement to so-called ‘third countries’ and to its legal and
humanitarian implications for migrants. The agency of transit countries will also be taken
into account, particularly focusing on the developmental and economic aid they receive in
exchange of cooperation on migration management.

Required
- Kimball, A. 2007. ‘The Transit State: A Comparative Analysis of Mexican and Moroccan
Immigration Policies’. Working Paper 150, Center for Comparative Immigration Studies,
University of California, San Diego Chapter 1: https://ccis.ucsd.edu/_files/wp150.pdf
- Casas-Cortes, M., Sebastian Cobarrubias, et al. 2016. ‘7. Externalization’ in ‘New Keywords.
Migration and Borders’. Cultural Studies 29:1.

Additional:
- El Qadim, N. (2014): ‘Postcolonial Challenges to Migration Control: French-Moroccan
Cooperation Practices on Forced Return’. In: Security Dialogue 45 (3). 242–261.
Cassarino, J.-P. (2017), ‘Approaching Borders and Frontiers in North Africa’, International
Affairs 93(4): 883-896.
- Bialasiewicz, L. (2012) Off-shoring and Out-sourcing the Borders of EUrope: Libya and EU
Border Work in the Mediterranean. Geopolitics, 17(4): 843-866.
- Casas-Cortes, M., Cobarrubias, S., and Pickles, J. (2013). Re-bordering the neighbourhood:
Europe’s emerging geographies of non-accession integration. European Urban and Regional
Studies, 20(1): 37-58.
- Garelli, G. and Tazzioli M. (2016) Tunisia as a Revolutionised space of migration. London:
Palgrave McMillan/Pivot Series.
- Perrin, D. Regulating migration and asylum in the Maghreb: What inspirations for an
accelerated legal development
- Carrera, S., Cassarino, J-P., El Qadim, N., Laholu, M. and den Hertog, L. 2016. EU-Morocco
Cooperation on Readmission, Borders and Protection. A model to follow? CEPS.
- [reports on Niger and Sudan]

Questions to think about:

- How does border externalization impact both ‘receiving’ and ‘transit’ countries?
- How does border externalization impact on the rights of migrants and asylum seekers?
Week 5 - Migrant Labour, Capitalism and Exploitation
This session addresses the relationship between migration, labour and capitalism, in
particularly focusing on how state borders divide capital and labour and on the process of
‘ethnicisation of labour’. Students will be introduced to different historical and geographical
regimes of migrant labour, as well as to gendered differences relating to both production
and social reproduction.

Required:
- Hanieh, A. 2010. 'Temporary Migrant Labour and the Spatial Structuring of Class in the Gulf
Cooperation Council.' Spectrum: Journal of Global Studies, 2 (3). pp. 67-89.
- Karakayali, S. and Rigo, E. 2010. ‘Mapping the European Space of Circulation’ in The
Deportation Regime: Sovereignty, Space, and the Freedom of Movement. Ed. Nicholas De
Genova and Nathalie Peutz. Durham, NC: Duke University Press:123-144.

Additional:
Korkmaz, E. E. 2017. ‘How do Syrian refugee workers challenge supply chain management in
the Turkish garment industry? IMI Working Paper:
https://www.imi.ox.ac.uk/publications/how-do-syrian-refugee-workers-challenge-supply-
chain-management-in-the-turkish-garment-industry
- Peano, I. 2017. ‘Global care-commodity chains: Labour re/production and agribusiness in
the district of Foggia, southeastern Italy’ in Sociologia del Lavoro 146:24-39.
- Anderson, B. and Ruhs, M. (2010) ‘Migrant Workers: Who Needs them? A Framework for
the Analysis of Shortages, Immigration, and Public Policy’, in Anderson, B. and Ruhs, M.
(eds.), Who Needs Migrant Workers? Labour Shortages, Immigration, and Public Policy,
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 15-52
- Mezzadra and Neilson. 2013. Border as Method or the Multiplication of Labor. Durham:
Duke University Press. Chapter 3, ‘Frontiers of Capital’, pp. 61-93.
- Akalin, A. 2015. ‘Motherhood as the Value of Labour. The Migrant Domestic Workers’
Market in Turkey’. Australian Feminist Studies 30(83).
- Davis, M. 2006. ‘Fear and Money in Dubai’. New Left Review 41
- Xiang, B., Yeoh, B. and Lindquist, J. 2012. ‘Opening the Black Box of Migration: Brokers, the
Organization of Transnational Mobility and the Changing Political Economy in Asia’, Pacific
Affairs, 85(1): 7-19

Questions to think about?

- What is the relationship between borders, labour and capitalism?
- How have migrant labour regimes changed through time?
Week 6 – Migrant Illegality, Detention and Deportation
This week’s session focuses on the production of migrant illegality and looks at its
entanglements with detention, deportation and deportability. We will draw on examples
from Europe, the US and Australia and dwell on the increasing criminalisation of irregular
migration.

Required:
- De Genova, N. 2002. ‘Migrant “Illegality” and Deportability in Everyday Life’. Annual
Review of Anthropology 31: 419-447.
- Gibney, M. 2013. ‘Is Deportation a Form of Forced Migration?’. Refugee Survey Quarterly,
32(2): 116-129.

Additional
- De Genova, N. and Peutz, N.M. 2010. The Deportation Regime. Durham, NC: Duke
University Press.
- Dauvergne, C. 2008. Making People Illegal. What Migration means for Globalisation and
Law. Cambridge; New York : Cambridge University Press.
- Andersson, R. 2014a. Illegality, Inc. Clandestine Migration and the Business of Bordering
Europe. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Anderson, Bridget. 2008. ‘Illegal Immigrant: Victim or Villain?’. COMPAS Working Paper
WP-08-64.
- Mountz, A. 2011. ‘The Enforcement Archipelago: Detention, Haunting, and Asylum on
Islands’. Political Geography 30:118-128.
- Schuster, L. and Majidi, N. 2014. ‘Deportation Stigma and Re-migration’. Journal of Ethnic
and Migration Studies 41(4):635-652.
- Welch, M. and Schuster, L. 2005. 'Detention of Asylum Seekers in the US, UK, France,
Germany and Italy: A Critical View of the Globalizing Culture of Control'. Criminal Justice,
5(4): 331–355.
- Andrijasevic, R. 2010. ‘From Exception to Excess: Detention and Deportations across the
Mediterranean Space’ in De Genova, N. and Peutz, N. The Deportation Regime: Sovereignty,
Space, and the Freedom of Movement. Durham, NC: Duke University Press:147-165.
- Jansen, Y., Celikates, R., de Bloois, J. (Ed.) (2014): The Irregularization of Migration in
Contemporary Europe. Deportation, Detention, Drowning. New York.
- Walters, William (2002): Deportation, Expulsion, and the International Police of Aliens. In:
Citizenship Studies 6 (3). 265–92.

Questions to think about:

- What is the difference between deportation and deportability? Which purposes do they
serve?
- What is the difference between administrative detention and criminal detention?
Week 7 - Development Aid to Potential Migrants and Returnees
This week’s session will draw on different examples of development projects targeting both
potential migrants and returnees. The session focuses in particular on the entanglements
between national states and IGOs/NGOs and on how discourses of development are
enmeshed in migration management, in ways that are particularly favourable for both
sending and receiving states rather than for the migrants themselves.

Required:
- Jean-Pierre Cassarino (2016), “Return Migration and Development: The Significance of
Migration Cycles”, in Anna Triandafyllidou (ed.), Routledge handbook of immigration and
refugee studies. New York: Routledge, pp. 216-222.
- Pécoud, A. 2010. ‘Informing Migrants to manage Migration? An analysis of IOM’s
Information Campaigns’ in Geiger, M., and Pécoud, A. The politics of International Migration
Management. Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Additional:
- Oeppen, Ceri (2016) ‘Leaving Afghanistan! Are you sure?’ European efforts to deter
potential migrants through information campaigns. Human Geography, 9 (2). pp. 57-68
- Xiang, B.; Yeoh, B. S. A., and Toyota, M. 2013. Return: Nationalizing transnational mobility
in Asia. Durham: Duke University Press.
- Andrijasevic, Rutvica and Walters, William (2010). The International Organization for
Migration and the international government of borders. Environment and Planning D:
Society and Space, 28(6) pp. 977–999.
- http://www.unhcr.org/uk/research/evalreports/3bd40fb24/returnee-aid-and-
development.html
- https://www.iom.int/sites/default/files/our_work/DMM/AVRR/Towards-an-Integrated-
Approach-to-Reintegration.pdf
- http://rsc.eui.eu/RDP/research/schools-of-thought/
-Facebook page OIM Libya

Questions to think about:

- What is the problematic stance of the ‘let’s help them at home’ discourse?
- How do the practices of ‘assisted voluntary return’ relate to the more general issue of
deportation?
Week 8 – Solidarity and Migrant Self-Organisation
In this session students are invited to think about the role of non-state actors in connection
to migration, development, solidarity and self-organisation. The session will draw on a range
of examples of solidarity and self-organisation in both ‘receiving’ and ‘sending’ countries
and will be encouraged to think critically about both the potential and shortcomings of this
initiatives. Moreover, the session will dwell on the blurred boundary between ‘the state’
and ‘civil society’.

Required:
- Danewid, I. 2017. White Innocence in the Black Mediterranean: Hospitality and the Erasure
of History. Third World Quarterly, 38:7, 1674-1689
- Lecadet, C. 2017. ‘Europe Confronted by Its Expelled Migrants: The Politics of Expelled
Migrants' Associations in Africa’ in De Genova, N. (eds). The Borders of Europe. Durham:
Duke University Press.

Additional:
- De Genova, N. 2010. ‘The Queer Politics of Migration: Reflections on “Illegality” and
Incorrigibility’. Studies in Social Justice 4(2).
- Ataç, I., Kron, S., Schilliger, S., Schwiertz, H. and Stierl, M. 2015. ‘Struggles of Migration as
In-/visible Politics’. Movements. Journal für kritische Migrations- und Grenzregimeforschung
1(2).
- Ataç, I., Rygiel, K. and Stierl, M. 2016. ‘Introduction: The Contentious Politics of Refugee
and Migrant Protest and Solidarity Movements: Remaking Citizenship from the Margins’.
Citizenship Studies 20(5).
- Trimikliniotis, Nicos / Parsanoglou, Dimitris / Tsianos, Vassilis (2014): Mobile Commons,
Migrant Digitalities and the Right to the City. Houndmills.
- Schwertl, M. 2017. ‘Transnational Solidarity-Not Aid: the Perspective of Migration on the
Hype about Migration&Development’ Social Inclusion 5(3).
- Braun, K. 2017. ‘Decolonial Perspectives on Charitable Spaces of “Welcome Culture” in
Germany. Social Inclusion 5(3).

Questions to think about:

- How does self-organisation relate to state-led development projects?
- What are the pitfalls of civil society’s spontaneous solidarity and assistance to migrants?
Week 9 –Citizenship, Race and Ethnicity
This session dwells on process of racialisation underpinning constructions of both
‘citizenship’ and ‘migration’. We will look at both ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ accounts of
migration, and at the politics of otherness underpinning both. Thus we will come back to the
question of the purported distinction between ‘the state’ and ‘civil society’ and ask what
role does citizenship play in terms of challenging or reasserting state borders.

Required
- El-Tayeb, F. 2008. ‘The Birth of a European Public”: Migration, Postnationality, and Race in
the Uniting of Europe’. American Quarterly 60 (3): 649-670-
- De Genova, N. 2017. ‘The European Question: Migration, Race and Postcoloniality in
Europe’. SocialText. 34(3-128).

Additional:
- Balibar, E. and Wallerstein, I. 1991. Race, Nation, Class. London and New York: Verso‘. (Ch.
3 ‘Racism and Nationalism’ and Ch. 4 ‘The construction of Peoplehood’)
- Grosfoguel, R., Oso, L. and Christou, A. 2015. ‘Racism’, intersectionality and migration
studies: framing some theoretical reflections, Identities, 22:6:635-652.
- Hansen, T.B. and Stepputat, F. Sovereign Bodies: Citizens, Migrants, and States in the
Postcolonial World. Princeton.
- Rigo, Enrica (2005): Citizenship at Europe's Borders: Some Reflections on the Post-Colonial
Condition of Europe in the Context of EU Enlargement. In: Citizenship Studies 9 (1). 3–22.
- Rumford, Chris (2008): Introduction: Citizens and Borderwork in Europe. In: Space and
Polity 12 (1). 1–12.
- [one text on right-wing anti-immigrant sentiment]
- Doty, R. 2006. Anti-Immigrantism in Western Democracies: Statecraft, Desire and the
Politics of Exclusion. Routledge.

Questions to think about:

- Which processes of racialisation do underpin both the construction of citizenship and of
migration?
- How does the topic of citizenship relate to the previous sessions?

Week 10: Final debate – Who counts as migrant?

For this session students are not required to do any additional readings, but rather to
review the trajectory of the course and come to the class prepared to discuss the question
‘who counts as a migrant?’. Part of the session will also be devoted to discuss the course’s
assignments.