Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The archives of migration are piecemeal and scattered. This is both an epistemological problem, and a matter of political concern in an international order that forces people to migrate, racializes them, and renders them subject to violence. In response, we explore the potential of counter-archiving migration. First, we explain why archives matter politically, and consider which traces of migration are stored and which are absent or lost. Second, we develop a methodology for counter-archiving migration. Third, we illustrate a process of counter-archiving, taking protests and violent evictions outside the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) offices as an analytical lens. We begin with an “along the grain” reading of official archives; we then turn to ethnography to trace the memories, practices, and material remnants of migrants’ struggles. Our analysis makes the case for counter-archival work in and beyond the field of migration. We argue that this approach serves to disrupt the epistemic violence of classification systems and categories associated with border violence; to chart the contestations and transformations of the global order from below; and to articulate new horizons of justice.
DOI: 10.1093/ips/olae035
Authors: Rachel Ibreck, Peter Rees, Martina Tazzioli
Institutions: Goldsmiths University of London, University of Bologna
Language: English
Topic: Migration and Exile Studies
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $4,536
Funder: Compagnia di San Paolo
OpenAlex ID: W4403137913