Day 1, Thursday the 9th of June
09.30-09.45 Registration
09.45-10.30 Keynote Dr Lea Sitkin: Continuities and Discontinuities in the Criminalisation of Immigration
The concept of the ‘criminalisation of immigration’ (or its portamanteau, ‘crimmigration’) is a relatively new one in academic discourse, rarely used before the turn of the millennium. It has subsequently been used to refer to a wide variety of discourses and practices, from media representations to the criminalisation of immigration offences. In tandem, a rich body of scholarship has emerged exploring the factors – changes to the underlying political economy; crises of belonging and sovereignty; global punitiveness - that have driven the criminalisation of immigration in the contemporary context.
As the concept enter into its third decade, it is worthwhile exploring what has changed in the criminalisation of immigration. How have the discourses and material practices of crimmigration changed over time? And how has the study of crimmigration changed over time? While the heterogeneity of the crimmigration concept undermines a definitive answer to these questions, this talk will explore some of the key transformations in the architecture and process of immigration control, and in our study thereof.
Lea Sitkin received her DPhil in Criminology from the University of Oxford in 2014, joining the University of Westminster the same year, where she is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology and the co-Course Leader for the BA Criminology program. Her first book, 'Rethinking the Political Economy of Immigration Control: A Comparative Analysis' was published by Routledge in 2019. Her current research explores the drivers of transformations in immigration policy in the UK under the Conservative government.
10.30-12.30 Panel 1: Criminalisation, rhetoric and practice
· Jukka Könönen: Foreigners’ Crime and Punishment: Policing “dangerous” mobile non-citizens through immigration law
· Sabrina Teklab: Street-level Bureaucracies and the Securitisation of Migration: An Inquiry into the Role of Local Police Agencies on Migrant Integration
· Marianna Poyares: What alternative? – new technologies of mobility control and the criminalization of migrants in the United States.
12.30-13.30 Lunch
13.30-14.15 Keynote Dr Matilde Rosina: Irregular migration in Europe: Towards a critique of deterrence and criminalisationIn Europe today, undocumented migration is increasingly criminalised. All but two EU member states foresee a ‘crime of irregular migration’, and several are considering strengthening its associated sanctions in order to deter further migration. How effective is such criminalisation in meeting its stated goals? Importantly, what are its consequences, for both migrants and receiving societies? Why does the ‘crime of migration’ often remain in place, even after being proved unsuccessful? In this keynote speech, Dr Matilde Rosina explores the above questions, drawing from her recent monograph and building on extensive fieldwork throughout Europe. In exploring the above, she develops a critique of deterrence and criminalisation as tools to address irregular migration in Europe.
More information about the book is available here.
Dr Matilde Rosina is LSE Fellow in International Migration, and Deputy Director of the Centre for Italian Politics at King’s College London. She obtained her PhD in International Political Economy from King's College London in 2020, having been awarded the King’s Outstanding Thesis Prize.
14.15-16:15 Panel 2 :Criminalisation, gender, and sexuality
· Amy Cortvriend: Hidden identities: Daughters of women seeking asylum
· Agata Dziuban: Migrant sex workers in Poland and the politics of policed abandonment
· Niina Vuolajarvi: The Control of "Wandering Women": The Legacy of 19th Century Vagrancy Laws in the Contemporary Criminalization of Migrant Sex Work
16.15-16.30 Break
16.30-17.15 Keynote Prof Nicola Mai: Exploring the Bordering Politics of Sexual Humanitarianism through Collaborative Ethnographic Filmmaking
Anti-trafficking policies and interventions play a strategic role in providing a sexual humanitarian legitimation and gloss to increasingly extreme forms of bordering of migration and of repression of sex work. In the context of sexual humanitarianism, specific migrant groups are problematised and targeted as specifically vulnerable to trafficking or ‘sexual exploitation’ according to national and global mobility, visibility and policymaking regimes emerging at the intersection between gender, sexuality and racialization. The paper will present the findings of the ERC-funded project SEXHUM (www.sexhum.org) studying the impact of policies and interventions targeting migrant sex workers in 4 national settings (Australia, France, New Zealand, and the United States) that are characterized by strategically different legal frameworks (criminalization, regulation, decriminalization) addressing sex work. It will draw on collaborative filmmaking as a strategic and ethical methodology to question mainstream narratives and representations on migrancy from a feminist, queer and intersectional perspective. The presentation will include excerpts of CAER and Plan B: two collaborative films produced in collaboration with two migrant sex workers rights organisations in NYC and Paris, respectively.
The trailers of the films and more information on the project encompassing them are available here: https://sexhum.org/nick-mais-bio-filmography-what-is-ethnofiction/
Nick Mai is a sociologist, an ethnographer and a filmmaker working as Professor of Criminology at the University of Leicester. His writing and films focus on the experiences and representations of migrants working in the sex industry and other stigmatised migrant groups. Through collaborative ethnographic films and original research findings Nick challenges the prevailing representation of migrant sex work as trafficking, while focusing on the complex dynamics of exploitation and agency that are implicated. Nick was the PI of SEXHUM (2016-2020), an ERC-funded research which studied the impact of anti-trafficking policies on the governance of migration and on the lives and rights of migrant sex workers in global North in Australia, France, New Zealand and the US. Nick is the author of Mobile Orientations: An Intimate Autoethnography of Migration, Sex Work, and Humanitarian Borders (Chicago University Press, 2018).
17.15-18.15 Screening of a film Caer by Colectivo Intercultural Transgrediendo and Nicola Mai
Caer collaborative documentary that uses fiction and observational filmmaking to express the struggles for recognition and justice of Latina trans women working in the New York sex industry.
Trailer of Caer
18.15-19.15 Reception
Day 2, Friday the 10th of June
09.30-09.45 Welcome
09.45-10.30 Keynote speaker: Dr Monish Bhatia :Reproductive Injustice in Britain.In this paper I will draw evidence from three ethnographic studies conducted between 2008-2017 to shed light on the predicaments of migrant mothers and pregnant migrant women excluded from the welfare safety-net, who were flying under the radar due to the fear of deportation. I will explain as to how immigration controls render women vulnerable to victimisation and harms. I will then address the imprisonment and punishment, treatment by the criminal justice system, and separation from children placed in foster care. The paper argues that controls in Britain disrupts the core principles of reproductive justice, including reproductive autonomy and health, and to parent children in a safe and healthy environment without fear of retaliation from the government.
Dr Monish Bhatia is a lecturer in criminology at Birkbeck, University of London. He has published widely in journals and books. Monish is the co-editor of several books and journal special issues including Stealing Time: Migration, Temporalities and State Violence (Palgrave 2021); Media, Crime and Racism (Palgrave, 2018); Migration, Vulnerability and Violence (International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy 2020); Borders, Racisms and Violence (Critical Criminology, 2020); Race, Mental Health and State Violence (Race & Class January 2021) and special issue on Migration and Racist State Violence (State Crime, 2022).
10.30-12.30 Panel 3: Criminalisation, colonial legacies, and resistance
· Anindita Chakrabarty: The ‘native’ and the ‘migrant’ in Assam: Tracing the Colonial Imprints
· Sanaz Raji: Carceral Campus: UK Higher Education, Marketisation, Debt & the Hostile Environment Policy
· Maud Martens: Grassroots humanitarian advocacy - Fighting for humanitarian space in the wake of the Calais Jungle
· Carlos Iglesias: Illegally crossing an open border: why do some Venezuelan migrants circumvent Colombian immigration control policy
12.30-12.45 Concluding remarks and next steps