ethics
Kaum ein migrationspolitisches Thema hat die Öffentlichkeit in letzter Zeit so sehr erregt, wie der kürzlich in New York verabschiedete Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM). Doch während alle Welt über den (wenig überraschenden) Inhalt des Paktes diskutiert, kommen kritische Anmerkungen zu den Konturen eben dieser Diskussion, ...
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Researchers face many obstacles in gaining permission to study migration governance sites as governments seek to avoid accountability. In this post, I reflect on my experience of gaining access to the Moria camp in Lesvos – its denial, its negotiation and its achievement. The importance of the Moria camp and the entire Lesvos island in the emergent geography of the EU border regime as a site of bureaucracy, control and humanitarianism has turned it into a popular field for researchers.
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Immigration detention centers are among those “obscured places” where migration is regulated and hidden from view. They are spaces of exclusion and suffering for those detained, and source of uncertainty and frustration for both detainees and staff working there. Access to those sites, as well as to data and information about them, is very restricted. It is precisely for this reason that research inside them – whenever possible and allowed – is worth the pains and difficulties it involves.
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While institutions of migration control and management are increasingly sought-after research sites, they are and will remain particularly sensitive ones as they evolve in a highly politicized field. Consequently, researchers encounter many challenges associated with gaining and maintaining access to these sites. The posts of this new series of blog posts – originally published on the Border Criminologies Blog – shed light on the way access shapes scientific knowledge.
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Une jolie princesse blonde, une vilaine sorcière tout de noire vêtue, des oiseaux de mauvais augure, une grosse brute barbare, trois moutons blancs et un mouton noir, des fainéants s’enrichissant « aux frais de la princesse », des usurpateurs, … L’énumération de ces différents protagonistes n’est pas celle du dernier conte de fée à la mode, mais bien un aperçu de l’éventail des personnages étant apparus au cours de ces dernières années dans les affiches de propagande helvétique. ...
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