The Affective Biopolitics of Migration

Bissenbakker, Mons; Myong, Lene

doi:10.2478/njmr-2019-0043

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Work attracts employees' attention to their tasks rather than the consequences of them, thus reducing the emotional burden that accompanies the task of forcibly removing immigrants. By discussing this effect, I explicate how 'affective labor' (Hardt 1999) is channeled into preparations for deportation and established as a key dimension of the Swedish deportation regime, in a phenomenon consistent with the observation that migration is increasingly governed at an affective level (Bissenbakker & Myong 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 67%

“…This calls back to Michel Foucault's (2007) definition of biopower, the 'power over life,' administered through biopolitics, which, in turn, is a form of governance that rationalizes controlling a population. Labor practices make biopower apprehensible 'from below' (Hardt 1999: 98); accordingly, I consider what becomes visible in the work detention employees do that enables government of migration through affect (Bissenbakker & Myong 2019).…”

Section: The Game Metaphor and Affective Labormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nordic Journal of Migration Research DOI: 10.33134/njmr.591 that migration is governed through affect (per Bissenbakker & Myong 2019) and that affective labor is gaining dominance as a value-producing form of labor in the global economy (Hardt 1999: 90)-and as biopower to control a population (Foucault 2007;Hardt 1999). However, the argument presented here adds a nuance to the argument that people who work with detention manifest state power, which reflects in some of the detention literature (Canning 2020;Khosravi 2009;Lindberg et al 2022).…”

Section: Backmanmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Labor of Chartering a Deportation Journey

Backman

2023

Nordic Journal of Migration Research

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The article explores the work routines of preparing for deportations, alongside the work-life situation of employees who handle the task of deporting people. Via an ethnographic account from Swedish detention centers, where immigrants' forced removal by way of chartered journeys is prepared for, the article elucidates how 'affective labor' goes into deportation. Through a close examination of the work dynamics among employees, discussed via the 'game' concept, the article reveals what is significant for realizing deportations and how this occurs in the interplay both of staff members and between those personnel and deportees. Thereby, it offers profound insight as to how employees cope with the task of detaining people and deporting them. The author concludes that the deportation work, in addition to being conditioned by legal frameworks, is characterized by work-life challenges tying in with general tendencies that have global counterparts. A significant contribution to deportation scholarship is visible in further knowledge of the affective labor that deportation entails, coupled with the argument that it constitutes a key dimension of Sweden's deportation regime.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Section: The Game Metaphor and Affective Labormentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Backmanmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Labor of Chartering a Deportation Journey

Backman

2023

Nordic Journal of Migration Research

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“…In the Nordic context, Nielsen and Myong (2019) similarly investigate the politics of Danish “white love” and how collective affect can come to figure as affective intervention “imbricated in exceptionalist politics and white nation-building processes” (Bissenbakker and Myong 2019, 421). Detailing the case of Liu Yiming, a young Chinese girl whose residency in Denmark was denied and—under public pressure—granted, Nielsen and Myong highlight the importance given to Yiming’s white Danish stepfather in the media reporting of the case as “being a good caring, and loving family men struggling to protect his family,” specifically as contrasted with “Yiming’s Chinese father’s apparent lack of interest in caring for her” (2019, 503).…”

Section: What’s At Stake? On the Political Context Of The “New (White...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Caring Masculinities and Race: On Racialized Workers and “New Fathers”

Prattes

2022

Men and Masculinities

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Karla Elliott defines caring masculinities as both embracing care and rejecting domination. Most work within critical studies on men and masculinities that engages with masculinities and care focuses on care yet sidelines non-domination. In order for caring masculinities to not be/come a “white” concept, this article argues for a broad grounding of caring masculinities in a rejection of all forms of domination and starts with race. Bringing research on the international division of reproductive labor together with fatherhood studies, the article illustrates systemic oppression within the field of care. It is here that privileged men manage to actualize ideals such as involved fatherhood by relying on a marginalized workforce in the coloniality of labor. A workforce that simultaneously remains locked out of involved fathering. I close by advocating not for the “inclusion” of men in the margins but for exploding the dominating power that the center holds.

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“…In recent years, the significance of affect for the workings of government, politics and policy has been subject to increased attention, as exemplified in notions of 'affective governance' and 'emotional states' (Jupp, Pykett & Smith 2017;McKenzie 2017). Of significance to my orientation towards affect is, moreover, the increasing attention internationally and within Nordic scholarship on how migration is governed through affects such as love and intimacy, leading to the inclusion and exclusion of specific forms of intimate migration (Bissenbakker & Myong, 2019).…”

Section: The Affective Biopolitics Of Repro-migrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Governing Parental Desires and Vulnerabilities: <i>Affective Biopolitics in the Context of Norwegian Citizens’ Repro-Migration</i>

Stuvøy

2019

Nordic Journal of Migration Research

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In the early 2010s, transnational surrogacy was a hotly debated topic in Norway following Norwegian citizens' repro-migration. One of the oft-repeated policy proposals in the debate was to criminalise transnational surrogacy in the same fashion as the purchase of sex. However, instead of introducing a prohibition, the Parliament, in 2013, voted in favour of an addition to the Biotechnology Act, clarifying that private individuals could not be punished for participating in surrogacy abroad. Of concern to me in this paper is how transnational surrogacy came to be handled in a manner that facilitated, rather than stopped, this type of repro-migration. I examine the legislative process that led to the current regulation of transnational surrogacy, with particular attention to the aff ective biopolitics of repro-migration. I fi nd that reproductive vulnerability and desire circulated in the debate, which fi nally resulted in an exemption of the Norwegian repro-migrants from punishment.

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The Affective Biopolitics of Migration

Cited by 9 publications

References 27 publications

The Labor of Chartering a Deportation Journey

The Labor of Chartering a Deportation Journey

Caring Masculinities and Race: On Racialized Workers and “New Fathers”

Governing Parental Desires and Vulnerabilities: <i>Affective Biopolitics in the Context of Norwegian Citizens’ Repro-Migration</i>

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