Solidarity movements: an ethnography of anti-deportation struggles in Switzerland
winner of the Global Migration Award 2024
ABSTRACT
Deportation in contemporary times only seems to rise. More and more, foreign nationals are judged to be threats legitimate enough to be expelled by force from a host country to the extent that some argue this action has become a normalized migration governance tool, and authors struggle to see how this scenario can change anytime soon. Still, in many countries, the phenomenon of solidarity movements promoted through political altruism of host country nationals towards irregular migrants against their deportation can be noticed. Despite these occurrences becoming more common, it is rare to see an analysis that argues for their potential to disrupt the embeddedness of the mechanism of deportation. In fact, scholars have argued that these movements lack impetus for change. However, having identified a problematic methodological gap in such studies, this thesis will argue that studying solidarity movements against deportation through ethnography leads to a different conclusion. Focusing on Switzerland because of the high occurrence of such movements in the country, and its configuration as a direct democracy, this inquiry ultimately aims to answer the following question: In what ways can the ethnographic study of Swiss solidarity movements against the detention and expulsion of foreigners disrupt the political practice of deportation?. Employing participant observation of anti-deportation protests, material analysis, and interviews, this thesis will investigate empirical examples of two Swiss solidarity movements that, contrary to usual conclusions, have a radical scope that aims to reform the deportation system and count upon active deportee participation, who demonstrate a political and resistant subjectivity. All in all, this thesis will then argue that it is in the in-depth personal investigation of such episodes that an alternative emerging political imaginary can be observed, which aims to contest the legitimacy of employing deportation as a migration governance tool.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Carolina Miranda Futuro is a Brazilian national, who has a master’s degree in international relations and political science from the Geneva Graduate Institute, obtained following the completion of her bachelor studies in international relations at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. She has been continuously dedicated to studying migration and has researched its diverse implications since the beginning of her studies. Her previous work has revolved around refugee local integration, human trafficking, and the phenomenon of deportation. With complementary professional experience in international humanitarian organizations, she will now research how humanitarian actors address internally displaced populations in her doctoral studies.
ABOUT THE GLOBAL MIGRATION AWARD
The Global Migration Award has been created by the Global Migration Centre in 2013 to promote innovative and high quality research on global migration. The prize rewards a Master student of the Graduate Institute for her/his outsanding thesis in the field of global migration (including mobility, forced or voluntary migration, transnational or internal displacement, citizenship, diaspora and the many other issues linked to the movement of persons). It is delivered each year on a competitive basis following a peer review process, and is open to any Master students of the Graduate Institute regardless of their specialization.
