An Ethnography of Migrant ‘Illegality’ in Sweden: Included Yet Excepted?
- 1 April 2010
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Journal of International Political Theory
- Vol. 6 (1), 95-116
- https://doi.org/10.3366/e1755088210000479
Abstract
This article examines how migrant ‘illegality’ is experienced in the Swedish context. How do ‘illegal‘ migrants manage work, housing, healthcare, safety and a family life in the absence of access to formal provisions? What are their survival strategies? I use direct quotations from undocumented migrants themselves to build a multifaceted picture of migrant ‘illegality’. Following Willen's (2007) call for a ‘critical phenomenology of illegality’, I move beyond the socio-political situation of undocumented migrants to their embodied experiences of being ‘illegal’. I conclude that undocumented migrants are not excluded but are excepted; they have not been thrown out, but neither are they considered participants. Undocumented migrants are included in society without being recognised as members.Keywords
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