Re‐searching access: what do attempts at studying migration control tell us about the state?

Abstract

Contributors to this special issue realised that reflecting on experiences of getting access (or not) can tell us something important about the institutions we aimed to study and, more broadly, about the migration control field. Put differently, attempts at approaching and approximating state actors within a charged field exposed us to some of its most fundamental organising principles. We have, therefore, set ourselves the task in this issue of SA/AS to ask and answer the following question: What do attempts at studying migration control tell us about the state? Our exercise is, thus, squarely set as an attempt to intervene in a burgeoning debate around the ways in which the ‘anthropology of the state’ can develop. Both the issues at stake – the management of undesired others – and the field in which we conduct our studies, migration control administrations, are indeed changing to become acutely central to the governing of our societies. By gathering findings from different research projects across Europe, this special issue offers a comparative perspective on some of the most salient features of the migration control field from the eyes of ethnographic researchers in search of access.

Shaping migration at the border: the entangled rationalities of border control practices

“…The SBG is part of the ‘migration control field’, which is difficult for researchers to access (Kalir et al 2019 ). Despite concerns about increasing workload, we were quickly granted an interview with the head of the SBG.…”

Immigration trials and international crimes: Expressing justice and performing race

“…This would later lead to the provision of the legal transcripts of the sentencing hearing. As previous studies on immigration have shown (Kalir et al, 2019) understanding the routes through which we can access people and institutions that exercise control over others tells us something about how these institutions work. Making explicit my own racial positioning in that courtroom that felt so unavoidably white, informs what conversations I had access to and how I analysed the empirical material presented in this article.…”

Exquisite Corpses and backward glances: European social anthropology 2019

“…The anthropology of the state is central to a special issue of Social Anthropology which examined issues around access experienced by anthropologists in relation to the state functions, systems and actors deployed in response to the migration ‘crisis’ as it is defined by the global North. Driven by the sense that within the field of migration and its control might be manifested some of the state’s most fundamental organising principles, the research projects highlighted in the preface (Kalir et al 2019) attempt to bring a comparative perspective to a highly contested and scrutinised issue. The management of undesired others, within a field which includes state agencies, parastate and international organisations, local, national and international NGOs as well individual actors – all of whom might be potentially hostile to researchers likely to produce critical accounts that might reflect negatively on their activities – provides the context for a cumulative synthesis.…”