Irregular migrants, neoliberal geographies and spatial frontiers of 'the political'

Review of International Studies

Volumn 33, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 655-674

  McNevin, Anne ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 34848878920     PISSN: 02602105     EISSN: 14699044     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0260210507007711     Document Type: Article

References (120)

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2. The term 'irregular migrant' refers to non-citizens who have crossed state borders or remain in state territory without the explicit sanction of the host state. It includes recent arrivals as well as longer-term residents who lack officially recognised residence and citizenship status. I avoid the more common terminology of 'undocumented migrant' because, as I discuss later in the article, irregular migrants are often in possession of identity documents which provide a measure of status within certain jurisdictions of the host state. 'Irregular migrant' and 'irregular migration' remain awkward terms, not least because they are thoroughly implicated in the state-centric account of citizenship and political belonging that this article attempts to problematise. However, since forms of citizenship and political belonging beyond state-centric ones are conceptually underdeveloped, we do not yet have the vocabulary to articulate the ambiguous status of many irregular migrants and residents. Thus while I employ the term 'irregular' here, more appropriate alternatives may well emerge as the theory and practice of citizenship progresses in terms of these issues.
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97. See for example, George W. Bush, 'Remarks by the President at District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Operations Center, Washington, DC November 12' (The White House: 2002), available at (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/ 2002/1/20021112-1.html) (accessed 26 June 2006).
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103. Cited in Aizenman, 'From Latino's Rally, Hopes for a Movement'.
104. Of some 2.5 million wage earners working in the agricultural sector in the United States, for example, 50 per cent are estimated to be irregular migrants; see Martin. 'Bordering on Control", p. 27-8.
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116. López-Garza, 'A Study of the Informal Economy', pp. 151-7.
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120. Ibid., pp. 24-6.