The spatio‐temporal ordering of migrant detention: Exclusion, hierarchy, and human disposal

Abstract

This paper analyses the spatialities and temporalities of a U.S. migrant detention centre, to demonstrate the entanglement of migrant exclusion with dehumanisation and racialisation. I examine spatial orderings such as isolation, segregation, and regulated mobilities in detention alongside the arbitrary and deadening tempos and rhythms of detention. I find patterns of inclusionary exclusion through which the “consent” of detained people to their own deportation is conditioned by dehumanising spatio‐temporalities. These patterns are the product of the highly standardised, regulated, and ordered spatio‐temporalities of detention. I ultimately argue that the spatial and temporal ordering of detention, in all of its standardisation, is a racialising project that rationalises exclusion and dehumanisation, placing responsibility for degradation, deportation, and even premature death, upon those in detention.

Surveillance and Security in Immigrant Detention Centres in Poland. An Overview of Key Technologies and Practices

“…Detention is an integral part of capture and deportation industry, which in the last years has been rapidly growing in the eU and beyond (Anderson et al 2013;DeBono 2016;Montange 2021). Deportation is often a desired outcome of detention (Niedźwiedzki et al 2021:56).…”

Talking population geographies and a ‘love letter’ to the journal

“…A fulsome statement along these latter lines is brought to the journal by Amelina (2021). 17 Many papers in the journal obviously deal with 'forced' migrations, displacements and disposals, sometimes fuelled or at least inflected by ethnocentric, maybe overtly racist, hostilities displayed by (what should be) 'host' populations and thereby seriously impacting immigrants', refugees' and asylum-seekers' senses of belonging, well-being and safety (e.g., Botterill & Hancock, 2018;Constable, 2021;Montange, 2021;Newbold et al, 2022;Parreñas et al, 2021;Ranta & Nancheva, 2018;Schiltz et al, 2019;Shubin, 2012;Wren, 2003). Related work on deportations and detentions of refugees and asylum-seekers, the latter with elements of a Foucauldian concern for disciplinary institutions, is also present in the journal (e.g., Griffiths, 2012;Kaufman, 2012;Klein & Williams, 2012).…”