the journal *movements* calls for contributions in the format of academic articles but also political interventions, that do not necessarily have to follow the academic format.
Please send your abstracts to info@movements-journal.org until March 6, 2016.
Best wishes!
*movements. Journal for Critical Migration and Border Regime Studies*
http://movements-journal.org/redaktion/cfp/cfp_2-2_contested_movements~en.html
*Issue 2 (2): Contested movements to and through EUrope*
_Call for Papers_
Issue 2 (2) of the journal /movements/focuses on two facets of European
migration and border regimes that are rarely analysed concomitantly: the
governance of EU citizens’ migration within the European Union, and that
of migration movements into the EU.
Since the beginnings of European integration, freedom of movement –
first for workers and later for all ‘Union citizens’ – has both
constituted one of its political cornerstones, and a promise of liberty.
However, at least since the debate on so-called ‘poverty immigration’ in
2013, a racist consensus dominates public discourses for example in
Germany and the UK. It hinges on the assumption that although a great
number of highly qualified ‘top performers’ make use of free movement
within the EU, an ‘unimpeded influx’ of people with less formal
education threatens the national populations of the core countries.
This post-liberal consensus obscures the fact that the agitation against
allegedly ‘unqualified’ migrants is characterised by racist logics, for
example in the form of anti-Roma racism. While these groups are welcomed
by parts of the economy as cheap labour, they are simultaneously
disenfranchised. Pertinent examples of such exclusionary processes are
the recent restrictions of basic rights that guarantee a minimum
subsistence level. For instance, the British Prime Minister David
Cameron makes Britain’s continued membership in the EU conditional on
limiting social rights for EU citizens in the UK. Similarly, the
European Court of Justice legitimised the German practice of withholding
social benefits from EU citizens in summer 2015. While protests against
these developments have not been very visible so far, struggles by EU
migrants lately managed to gain increasing public attention. The labour
dispute at the ‘Mall of Berlin’ in 2014/2015 is an excellent case in point.
What currently attracts more attention, however, are the persistent
movements into EUrope, alternately referred to as ‘refugee crisis’ or
‘Summer of Migration’. Last year, these movements severely shook up
EUrope’s external borders. In late summer 2015, several governments
decided to give way to the movements of migration and provided
transportation services to hundreds of thousands of people. During
autumn and winter 2015/2016, they gradually revoked this partial opening
of the borders: Hungary closed its south-western borders; Bulgaria
extended its existing fence; at the Greek-Macedonian border, border
guards started to select migrants by resorting to logics of racial
profiling; Germany introduced controls on the border with Austria. In
many places, protests against these border closures took place.
With /movements/2 (2) we want to analyse both facets: current struggles
over the EUropean asylum and border regime as well as the
transformations of EU freedom of movement, EU citizenship, and struggles
in the context of EU-internal migration. In addition to articles
focusing on the individual sub-fields, we especially welcome
contributions that analytically link these facets of European migration
and border regimes, which are often thought in separation. Thinking
through their connections instead would open up new perspectives on the
continuities and accelerating changes in European migration and border
policies.
In particular, we propose a number of questions that focus on the
relationship of current attempts to govern migration with racist
conjunctures and capitalist dynamics:
1) Which modes of governance characterise or influence the political
responses to the current movements of migration to and through EUrope?
Which significance, for example, have discourses around an alleged ‘loss
of control’ within the conflicts over the restriction of rights and
mobility? How does this ‘state of exception’ manifest itself in the two
sub-regimes?
2) What role do different racist logics and capitalist utilitarianism
play in the context of the uneven categorisation of people into ‘good’
and ‘bad’ migrants? Examples of these categories include ‘refugees in
need of protection’ that are distinguished from ‘economic refugees’, or
allegedly useful ‘labour migrants’ that are separated from so-called
‘welfare tourists’. How are these new and old racisms and capitalist
tactics articulated in concrete practices and conflicts?
3) How can these dynamics of migration and racism be connected to
shifting social and political power relations, and the current
conjuncture of capitalism?
4) In what way are the EUropean migration and border regimes
renationalised or dismantled on the one hand, and strengthened and
further EUropeanised on the other? How can changes in relation to the
Dublin regime, the externalisation of borders or the social rights of EU
citizens be analysed against this background?
5) Which actors are involved in these conflicts and struggles of
migration, and which practices and (resistant) subjectivities emerge?
We are looking forward to receive abstracts of no more than 500 words
by*March 6, 2016*. We welcome abstracts for all the different formats of
/movements/: academic articles, political interventions in essay format,
interviews, research reports as well as book reviews. We also seek
contributions from activists and political movements. The final
contributions will have 20.000 to 40.000 characters and can be written
in German or English (please get in touch for further languages). The
final contributions are due by *June 19, 2016*.
All submissions will pass through a collaborative review process
conducted by the editorial board. Academic articles are reviewed
additionally by at least two anonymous experts. In any case, the
editorial team will discuss comments and suggestions with the authors in
a transparent process. Final decisions on the acceptance of
contributions are made by the board. The issue will be published in
December 2016.
*For further questions and submissions of abstracts:
info@movements-journal.org *
*For more information*on the journal and the review process:
*http://movements-journal.org*