Undocumented Migration, social movements and public policy

Duration

30h Th

Number of credits

Lecturer

Marco Martiniello

Substitute(s)

Davide Gnes

Language(s) of instruction

English language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the second semester

Schedule

Schedule online

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

Undocumented migration has become a top priority on the political agendas of many Western governments. Media frequently report on the large numbers of 'illegal' immigrants that cross the border or overstay their visas without state authorization. Meanwhile, politicians on all sides of the political spectrum raise warning signs about the 'flood' of 'illegal aliens' and the threats it might pose to the social cohesion and welfare of Western societies. Governments have accordingly attempted to control irregular migration flows through measures like deportation, border enforcement and 'one-shot' regularizations. What are often missing in mainstream media and politicians' discourses on irregular migration are the stories of undocumented migrants. Yet, over the last few decades, there has been a significant rise in forms of undocumented activism whereby migrants, often with the support of local civil society organizations, contest their exclusion from citizenship and voice their demands for a more inclusive migration politics.
This raises the following questions: Can states control undocumented migration? How do they decide to let some migrants in and keep others out? Which governance techniques have states designed to do so? How do these policies affect targeted migrant communities? How do migrants become 'illegal'? How do undocumented migrants gain a political voice? Which means do they have at their disposal to mobilize public support for their demands? And what are the challenges that undocumented migrants face in the current political climate?
This course aims to tackle these questions by providing students with the necessary analytical tools and theoretical frameworks to make sense of undocumented migration as a social phenomenon. More in particular, we will pay attention to the role that the state on the one side and civil society and social movement actors on the other play in shaping irregular migration politics.

• On the one hand, we will investigate the public policies that are designed and enacted to manage and govern undocumented migrants. This will include a critical examination of the historical construction of the category of the 'illegal' immigrant, a discussion around the factors shaping policy on irregular migration, as well as an analysis of bordering and other practices of migration management and control.

• On the other hand, we will study how social movements and civil society organizations, often led by migrants themselves, contest these ways of governing and seek to improve the social, economic, legal and political standing of undocumented immigrants. In this context, topics of investigation will include the claims-making practices of the undocumented, the forms of political expression that they develop in their host societies and the alliances they build with other civil society actors.

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

The course aims to familiarize students with a number of key concepts and debates regarding irregular migration, focusing on the one hand on the role of public policy in creating 'irregularity' and 'illegality' and on the other on how civil society and social movements, including those formed by migrants themselves, contest those very policies. Students will be pushed to critically question their presumptions about undocumented migrants and form an empirically grounded and informed understanding of irregular migration policies and their contestations. Throughout the class, students should be capable of working independently, initiating research and theoretically interpreting a case study of undocumented migration politics in a particular country or region.
Upon successful completion of this course students will:

• have developed a critical understanding of several key debates and theoretical perspectives related to irregular migration policies and their contestations;
• be able to apply arguments and theories from migration studies, social movement theory and citizenship studies to understand and explain related empirical cases;
• have further developed their discussion skills;
• have further developed their presentation skills.

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

A good level of English is required.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

"Undocumented Migration, Social movements and Public Policy" combines a lecture and a discussion seminar in one weekly meeting of two hours. Each weekly session centres around one particular topic related to irregular/undocumented migration, public policy and social movements. A schedule of topics can be found below. A reading list and reading materials will be shared one week ahead of the first class.
The course is intended to further develop students' theoretical and empirical knowledge as well as their analytical, debating and presentation skills. The course thus requires students to prepare in advance for each meeting and to actively participate in class. The course uses four main pedagogical tools: 1) lectures delivered by the instructor; 2) weekly discussions of the readings in class, under the supervision of the instructor; 3) an individual written assignment (final paper), under the supervision of the instructor; 4) an individual presentation of the final paper.
This course will combine face-to-face and, to a lesser extent, distance-learning activities. The lecturer will organize 9 face-to-face meetings, during which presence of the students will be required. On the 2 weeks where no class is planned, students will still receive a list of readings for self-study. Depending on the number of students enrolled in the course, the structure of the course and the number of face-to-face meetings may be subject to changes.
Throughout the course, the instructor will be available to provide long-distance (via e-mail and Skype) or face-to-face support during office hours (by appointment).

Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning)

The lecturer will organize 8 face-to-face lecture sessions. Those will take place on the following dates: February 6, February 13, February 27, March 6, March 20, March 27, April 3 and May 8. Each session will be divided in two: the first hour will comprise of a lecture by the course instructor addressing the general theme of the session; during the remaining hour the course participants will actively discuss the readings for the session under the guidance and supervision of the course coordinator.
No class will be held on February 20, March 13 and April 24. However, on those weeks, students will still receive a list of assigned readings for self-study and they are expected to deliver a short written commentary of those weeks' readings (see below on assessment).
Depending on the number of students enrolled in the course, the structure of the course and the number of face-to-face meetings may be subject to changes.

Recommended or required readings

This course is highly interdisciplinary and will make use of journal articles and book chapters across the social sciences. Both qualitative and quantitative empirical pieces will be discussed. The course literature is sourced from electronic journals and books.
There will be two required readings per week and the lecturer will make the required material available electronically via MyULg. The reading list will be provided before the start of the course.
Course Program
WEEK 1. 6 February. Human Mobility and Citizenship in a World of Nation States
WEEK 2. 13 February. Keeping Strangers Out? Bordering Practices and the Securitization of Migraiton
WEEK 3. 20 February. How Immigrants Became 'Illegal'. The Politics of Categorization. [NO CLASS]
WEEK 4. 27 February. What Shapes Policy on Irregular Migration?
WEEK 5. 6 March. Governing Undocumented Migrants: Regularizations, Control and Deportation
WEEK 6. 13 March. Living as Undocumented [NO CLASS]
WEEK 7. 20 March. Non-citizen Citizenship? Claim-Making and Political Subjectivity of Undocumented Migrants
WEEK 8. 27 March. Collective Action and Mobilizations on Immigrant Rights
WEEK 9.  3 April. Migrants, Workers, Students or Parents? Narratives, Discourses and Political Storytelling in the Activism of Undocumented Migrants
WEEK 10. 24 April. Undocumented Migrants and Civil Society [NO CLASS]
Week 11. 8 May. Essay Presentation

Assessment methods and criteria

The course will be assessed in the following ways:

• Attendance and class participation (presence + class discussion + written commentaries). You will receive a class participation grade worth 30%. This is based on your active and sustained contribution to class discussions based on the assigned literature during face-to-face meetings, as well as on the quality of your written commentaries on 'no-class' weeks.
• Final research paper of 4,000 words including references, worth 50% (due May 3)
• One individual presentation of the paper, worth 20%.

• Carefully read the academic publications posted on MyULg under "Support de cours";

• Participate actively in lectures throughout the semester;
• Critically discuss the assigned literature with the lecturer and other students

• Write a commentary reflecting on the theories, analyses, and case studies presented in the week's assigned readings and submit it to the lecturer. Commentaries should be at 300 words, and should include a description of the author's argument before commenting on it.
• Students should submit their commentary to the course instructor every Wednesday on 'no-class' weeks no later than 22:00. Failure to submit a commentary or to submit it late will penalize the students' grade.

Work placement(s)

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Organizational remarks

Thank you for following the directions on My ULg.

Contacts

• Davide Gnes  dgnes@uliege.be
  Lecturer in Sociology, Université de Liège / Research Fellow, University of Amsterdam
  
• Marco Martiniello - M.martiniello@ulg.ac.be 
  Directeur de recherches du FRS-FNRS