This article seeks to explain how and why groups and networks of undocumented migrants mobilizing in Berlin, Montréal, and Paris since the beginning of the 2000s construct different types of claims. The authors explore the relationship between undocumented migrants and state authorities at the local level through the concept of the citizenship regime and its specific application to undocumented migrants (which they describe as the “borderline citizenship regime”). Despite their common formal exclusion from citizenship, nonstatus migrants experience different degrees and forms of exclusion in their daily lives, in terms of access to certain rights and services, recognition, and belonging within the state (whether through formally or nonformally recognized means). As a result, they have an opportunity to create different, specific forms of leeway in the society in which they live. The concurrence of these different degrees of exclusion and different forms of leeway defines specific conditions of mobilization. The authors demonstrate how the content of their claims is influenced by these conditions of mobilization.
Etienne Balibar, Droit de cité (Paris: PUF , 2002).
2.
See below for a justification of our three cases. For other empirical cases, see in the United States: Claudio Lomnitz, "2006 Immigrant Mobilizations in the United States," in Non-governmental Politics, ed. M. Feher, G. Krikorian, and Y. McKee (New York: Zone Books, 2007), 434-45; in Australia: Prem Kumar Rajaram and Carl Grundy-Warr, "The Irregular Migrant as Homo Sacer: Migration and Detention in Australia, Malaysia, and Thailand," International Migration 42, no. 1 (2004): 33-64; in Switzerland: Elodie Antony, La mobilisation des sans-papiers: une revendication de l’invisible? Etude du Collectif des Travailleurs et Travailleuses Sans Statut Légal à Genève (Geneva: Université de Genève, 2010).
3.
Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward, Poor People’s Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail (New York: Pantheon Books, 1977); Bob Edwards and John McCarthy, "Resources and Social Movement Mobilization," in The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, ed. D. Snow, S. Soule, and H. Kriesi (Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 2004), 116-52; David Snow, Sarah Soule, and Daniel Cress, "Identifying the Precipitants of Homeless Protest Across 17 U.S. Cities, 1980 to 1990," Social Forces 83, no. 3 (2005): 1183-1210.
4.
Sophie Maurer, Les chômeurs en action (décembre 1997-mars 1998): Mobilisation collective et ressources compensatoires (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2001).
5.
Frédéric Royall, "The Problems of Collective Action for Associations of the Unemployed in France and Ireland," in The Political Context of Collective Action: Argumentation, Power and Democracy, ed. R. Edmondson (London: Routledge, 1997), 146-62; Jean Faniel, "Belgian Unemployed and Obstacles to Collective Action" (paper, European Consortium for Political Research Conference, Marburg, Germany, September 2003).
6.
As developed below, exclusion of undocumented migrants is primarily of a formal nature (exclusion from citizenship and the basic rights associated with it, including the right to be there). Because of that, civil servants and police forces in situations of social interaction with undocumented migrants have the power to deport them or to denounce them to state authorities.
7.
Godfried Engbersen, "The Unanticipated Consequences of Panopticon Europe: Residence Strategies of Illegal Immigrants," in Controlling a New Immigration World, ed. V. Guiraudon and C. Joppke (New York: Routledge, 2001), 222-46.
8.
Jane Jenson and Susan D. Phillips, "Regime Shift: New Citizenship Practices in Canada," International Journal of Canadian Studies 14, no. 1 (1996): 111-36; Jane Jenson and Martin Papillon, "The Changing Boundaries of Citizenship: A Review and a Research Agenda," in Modernizing Governance: A Preliminary Exploration (Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Management Development 2000); Jane Jenson and Susan D. Phillips, "Redefining the Canadian Citizenship Regime: Remaking the Institutions of Representations," in Citizenship, Markets and the State, ed. C. Crouch, K. Eder, and D. Tambini (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2001), 69-89.
9.
Lilian Mathieu , "Une mobilisation improbable: l’occupation de l’église Saint-Nizier par les prostituées lyonnaises ," Revue française de science politique40, no. 3 (1999): 475-99.
10.
Simone Baglioni, Britta Baumgarten, Didier Chabanet, and Christian Lahusen, "Transcending Marginalization: The Mobilization of the Unemployed in France, Germany and Italy in Comparative Perspective," Mobilization 13, no. 3 (2008): 323-35; Didier Chabanet and Frédéric Royall, eds., Mobilizing Against Marginalization in Europe (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010); Piven and Cloward, Poor People’s Movements.
11.
Donatella Della Porta, "Protest on Unemployment: Forms and Opportunities," Mobilization 23, no. 3 (2008): 277-95; Olivier Fillieule, ed., Le désengagement militant (Paris: Belin, 2005); Andrew Richards, "Mobilizing the Powerless: Collective Protest Action of the Unemployed in the Interwar Period" (Working Paper 175, Juan March Institute, Madrid, 2002); Johanna Siméant, La cause des sans-papiers (Paris: Presses de Sciences Po, 1998); Snow, Soule, and Cress, Blackwell Companion to Social Movements.
12.
Thomas Hammar, ed., European Immigration Policy (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1985).
13.
Ibid.; Andrea Réa , "Les immigrés et la citoyenneté de l’Union Européenne," in Repenser l’Europe , ed. M. Telo and P. Magnette (Brussels: Editions de l’ULB, 1994), 85-101.
14.
Although it is impossible to calculate the exact number of undocumented migrants living in a territory, several estimates provide a good idea of the figure. Different studies have shown that nonstatus migrants represent 2 to 3 percent of the total population of large cities in Western states (Jörg Alt, "Illegalität im Städtevergleich: Leipzig, München, Berlin," IMIS Beiträge 27 [2005]: 71-80). Estimates regarding the three cases that we analyze in this article (Berlin, Montréal, and Paris) are available at the national level: between 50,000 and 100,000 undocumented migrants are living in Canada (Erika Khandor, Jean McDonald, Peter Nyers, and Cynthia Wright, "The Regularization of Non-Status Immigrants in Canada 1960-2004. Past Policies, Current Perspectives, Active Campaigns" [2004], http://www .ceris.metropolis.net [accessed June 3, 2009]); between 200,000 and 400,000 live in France (Henri Courau, "Undocumented Migration. Counting the Uncountable. Data and Trends across Europe, Country report France" [2008], www.clandestino.eliamep.gr [accessed June 3, 2009]); and between 100,000 and one million live in Germany (Norbert Cyrus, "Undocumented Migration Counting the Uncountable. Data and Trends Across Europe, Country Report Germany for the Research Project Clandestino" [2008], www.clandestino .eliamep.gr [accessed June 3, 2009]).
15.
Peter Nyers , "No One Is Illegal. Between City and Nation," in Acts of Citizenship , ed. E. Isin and G. Nielsen ( New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 160-81.
16.
Susan Coutin , Legalizing Moves: Salvadoran Immigrants’ Struggle for US Residency (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000), 28.
17.
Alessandro dal Lago, Non-Persone. L’Esclusione dei Migranti in una Societa Globale (Milan: SAGGI, 2004).
18.
Virginie Guiraudon, Les politiques d’immigration en Europe. Allemagne, France, Pays-Bas (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2000); Hammar, European Immigration Policy; Ruud Koopmans, Paul Statham, Marco Giugni, and Florence Passy, Contested Citizenship: Immigration and Cultural Diversity in Europe (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005); Andréa Réa, "Accès à la citoyenneté des immigrés et absence de reconnaissance," in L’Etat des citoyennetés en Europe et dans les Amériques, ed. J. Jenson, B. M. Pereira, and E. Remacle (Montréal: Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 2007), 125-49.
19.
Rogers Brubaker , Citizenship and Nationhood in France and in Germany (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
20.
Dominique Schnapper , L’Europe des immigrés. Essai sur les politiques d’immigration (Paris: François Bourin, 1992).
21.
Will Kymlicka , Multicultural Citizenship. A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1995).
22.
Jane Jenson , "Des Frontières aux lisières de la citoyenneté," in L’Etat des citoyennetés en Europe et dans les Amériques , ed. J. Jenson, B. M. Pereira, and E. Remacle ( Montréal : Presses de l’Université de Montréal2007), 23-30.
23.
Jenson and Phillips, "Regime Shift."
24.
Jane Jenson , "Rethinking Equality and Equity. Canadian Children and the Social Union," in Democratic Equality, What Went Wrong?, ed. E. Broadbent ( Toronto: University of Toronto, 2001), 114.
25.
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (London: Verso , 2000).
26.
Jenson and Phillips, "Regime Shift"; Koopmans et al, Contested Citizenship.
27.
Prem Kumar Rajaram and Carl Grundy-Warr, eds., Borderscapes: Hidden Geographies and Politics and Territory’s Edge (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007), 9.
28.
Ibid., 10. On this perspective, see also Sandro Mezzadra, I confini della libertà. Per una lettura politica delle migrazioni contemporanee (Rome: DeriveApprodi, 2004); D. Bigo and E. Guild, eds., Controlling Frontiers. Free Movement Into and Within Europe (London: Ashgate, 2005).
29.
Katja Franko Aas, "Borders and the Changing Notions of Territoriality," in Global Surveillance and Policing: Borders, Security, Identity, ed. E. Zureik and M. Salte ( Devon: Willan, 2005).
30.
Nyers, "No One Is Illegal," 167.
31.
Jenson and Papillon, "Changing Boundaries of Citizenship."
32.
Our research is based on a comparison of movements of undocumented migrants at the local level, using major cities as a criterion for comparison. Although decisions regarding the conditions of exclusion of undocumented migrants are made at the national level, they are applied at the local level (Alexis Spire, Etrangers à la carte. L’administration de l’immigration en France, 1945-1975 [Paris: Grasset, 2005]). Furthermore, it is primarily at the local level that undocumented migrants construct their mobilizations (Siméant, La cause des sans-papiers). Last, the size of our unit of analysis, the city, allows us to build a virtually comprehensive sample: in Montréal, we have considered all important groups mobilizing for the regularization of undocumented migrants; in Berlin and in Paris, we have considered the most important groups mobilizing for the regularization of undocumented migrants from 2000 to 2009 (see below).
33.
In most situations, legal access has been guaranteed through appeals to international law (Yasemin Soysal, Limits of Citizenship: Migrants and Postnational Membership in Europe [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994]).
34.
Claudie Baudino , "Citoyenneté et parité en Belgique. Figures et projets dans le débat paritaire," in L’Etat des citoyennetés en Europe et dans les Amériques, ed. J. Jenson, B. M. Pereira , and E. Remacle ( Montréal: Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 2007), 101-24.
35.
This is in line with historical studies that have analyzed the evolution of discourses and public policies related to the immigration issue since the nineteenth century (Guiraudon, Les politiques d’immigration en Europe; Ulrich Herbert, Geschichte der Ausländerpolitik in Deutschland. Saisonarbeiter, Zwangsarbeiter, Gastarbeiter, Flüchtlinge (Munich: Beck, 2000); Gérard Noiriel, Immigration, antisémitisme et racisme en France, 19e-20e siècle. Discours publics, humiliations privées (Paris: Fayard, 2007).
36.
International standards can have an influence on migrants’ rights in general (Soysal, Limits of Citizenship). States, however, are the main actors that shape the conditions of exclusion of undocumented migrants, through the implementation of their immigration policy at the local level (Spire, Etrangers à la carte). The focus of our analysis is at the city level, with the national level as a background, and we set aside the influence of the international level on the conditions of exclusion of undocumented migrants.
37.
Siméant, La cause des sans-papiers.
38.
While the dynamics internal to the networks and the organizations themselves play a crucial role in the understanding of mobilizations, this aspect is beyond the scope of our article and could constitute the subject of another study.
39.
Elizabeth Armstrong, Forging Gay Identities: Organizing Sexuality in San Francisco, 1950-1994 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002); Jane Jenson, "Social Movements Naming Practices and the Political Opportunity Structure." Working Paper 1998/114, (Juan March Institute, Madrid, April 1998); Donatella Della Porta and Gianni Piazza, Voices of the Valley, Voices of the Straits: How Protest Creates Communities (New York: Berghahn Books, 2008); D. Cefaï and D. Trom, eds., Les Formes de l’Action Collective (Paris: Editions de l’EHESS, 2001); Lilian Mathieu, "Rapport au politique, dimensions cognitives et perspectives pragmatiques dans l’analyse des mouvements sociaux," Revue française de science politique 52, no. 1 (2002): 75-100.
40.
For instance, in 2006, forty-one documents were produced by these groups and networks: thirteen in Berlin, nine in Montréal, and nineteen in Paris.
41.
David Snow, Burke Rochford, Steven Worden, and Robert Benford, "Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation," American Sociological Review 51, no. 1 (1986): 464-48; David Snow and Robert Benford, "Framing Processes and Social Movements: An Overview and Assessment," Annual Review of Sociology 26, no. 1 (2000): 611-39.
Ibid.; Guiraudon, Les politiques d’immigration en Europe.
44.
Cyrus, "Undocumented Migration."
45.
Ibid.
46.
Holk Stobbe, Undokumentierte Migration in Deutschland und den Vereinigten Staaten (Göttingen: Universitätsverlag, 2004). Recent studies place the number of deportations in 2002 and 2003 at 40,000 and 36,000, respectively. In 2002 and 2003 as well, 47,000 and 44,000 people, respectively, were deported immediately upon their arrival at the border (Sénat, Service des études juridiques, L’expulsion des étrangers en situation irrégulière, Étude de législation comparée n° 162 [Paris, 2006]).
47.
Jérémie Gauthier, "A Berlin, le contrôle par la prevention," Plein Droit, no. 81 (2009): 25-29.
48.
The same can be said for the illegal housing market (Stobbe, Undokumentierte Migration).
49.
Ibid.
50.
Ibid.
51.
These migrants have a status of "tolerance" (Duldung). It is not a legal status; it is a provisional annulment of the deportation procedure. Individuals with the Duldung status have certain rights that other undocumented migrants do not have. For example, they have a minimum living allowance provided by the state, and their children may attend school. In 2006, approximately 200,000 migrants had this status (Philipp Riecken, Die Duldung als Verfassungsproblem [Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2006]).
52.
Jörg Alt and Ralf Fodor, Rechtlos? Menschen Ohne Papiere: Anregungen für eine Positions-bestimmung (Karlsruhe , Germany: Von Loeper, 2001).
53.
Martin Baldwin-Edwards and Albert Kraler, "Regularisations in Europe, Study on Practices in the Area of Regularisation of Illegally Staying Third-Country Nationals in the Member States of the EU" (research project for the International Centre for Migration Policy Development, 2009 ), http://research.icmpd.org/1184.html (accessed June 3, 2009).
54.
Cyrus, "Undocumented Migration."
55.
Herbert, Geschichte der Ausländerpolitik in Deutschland.
56.
This expression refers to the media’s discovery that several German diplomats awarded a very high number of visas to Ukrainian migrants.
57.
Andrew Geddes, Immigration and European Integration: Towards Fortress Europe? ( Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press , 2000); Bigo and Guild, Controlling Frontiers.
58.
The Voice Refugee Forum, "Information about The Voice Refugee Forum Germany,"www.thevoiceforum.org (accessed April 4, 2010).
59.
Initiative Togo Action Plus, "The Residenzpflicht Law is a Racist Law," August 15, 2008.
60.
François Brun, "Social and Economic Aspects of Living Conditions of Undocumented Migrants in France," in Book of Solidarity: Providing Assistance to Undocumented Migrants in France, Spain and Italy (Brussels: PICUM, 2003), 16-34.
61.
In France, the sectors of construction, catering, and domestic work depend in large part on the employment of undocumented migrants (Brun, "Social and Economic Aspects").
62.
In 2008, French authorities carried out 29,000 deportations. From 2002 to 2007, the number of deportations rose by 140 percent (Courau, "Undocumented Migration").
63.
The vast majority of undocumented migrants detained in retention centers are from North African or sub-Saharan countries (Courau, "Undocumented Migration").
64.
Cimade, "Rapport 2007 sur les centres et locaux de rétention administrative,"2008, www.cimade.org (accessed June 3, 2009).
65.
Jérôme Valluy, "Quelles sont les origines du ministère de l’Identité nationale et de l’Immigration? " Cultures et Conflits69, no. 1 (2008): 7-18.
66.
Karin Sohler , "Regularisations in Europe, Study on Practices in the Area of Regularisation of Illegally Staying Third-Country Nationals in the Member States of the EU, Country Report France" (research project for the International Centre for Migration Policy Development, 2009), http://research.icmpd.org/1184.html (accessed June 3, 2009).
67.
Olivier Le Cour Grandmaison, "Colonisés-immigrés et ‘périls migratoires’: origines et permanence du racisme et d’une xénophobie d’Etat (1924-2007),"Cultures et Conflits69, no. 1 (2008): 19-32; Noiriel, Immigration, antisémitisme et racisme en France.
68.
Didier Bigo , Polices en Réseaux: L’Expérience Européenne ( Paris: Presses de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, 1996 ).
69.
This process is not new but has become more visible since the early 2000s (Noiriel, Immigration, antisémitisme et racisme en France; Bigo and Guild, Controlling Frontiers).
70.
9e Collectif des Sans-Papiers, "1er Mai 2009 Manifestation contre la précarisation, la criminalisation et pour la convergence des lutes" (Demonstration against precariousness, criminalization, and for the convergence of fights, May 2009).
71.
Mobilizing around housing conditions.
72.
Mobilizing around the HIV issue.
73.
Mobilizing around the precarious working conditions in the cultural field.
74.
9e Collectif des Sans-Papiers, "Etudiants, sans-papiers, salariés, intermittents, chômeurs, retraités, tous précaires, tous solidaires," April 7, 2006.
75.
Xavier Crettiez and Isabelle Sommier, eds., La France rebelle: tous les mouvements et acteurs de la contestation (Paris: Michalon, 2006).
76.
However, they will be required to pay for it (François Crépeau and Cécile Rousseau, "Health Care Access for Refugees and Immigrants with Precarious Status: Public Health and Human Rights Challenges," Revue Canadienne de Santé Publique 99, no. 4 [1999]: 7-21).
77.
Studies estimate that approximately 5 percent of all undocumented migrants living in Canada can be regularized through this procedure (Khandor et al., "Regularization of Non-Status Immigrants").
78.
Canadian Border Services Agency, "Efficient and Effective Border Management That Contributes to the Security and Prosperity of Canada,"2008, www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca (accessed June 3, 2009).
79.
Eugénie Depatie-Pelletier, "Le Québec et le Canada refusent de reconnaître aux travailleurs migrants les droits protégés par la Convention de l’O.N.U" (working paper, Canada Research Chair on International Migratory Law, 2007).
80.
François Crépeau and Delphine Nakache, "Controlling Irregular Migration in Canada: Reconciling Security Concerns with Human Rights Protection," Immigration and Refugee Policy12, no. 1(2006): 5-23.
81.
Crépeau and Rousseau, "Health Care Access."
82.
Khandor et al., "Regularization of Non-Status Immigrants."
83.
Idil Atak, François Crépeau , and Delphine Nakache, "Sécurité et droits de la personne au Canada et en Europe: un déséquilibre à corriger,"Options politiques1 (2006): 30-35.
84.
François Crépeau, interview in Renaud Goyer, Créer l’illégalité, documentary film produced for the Centre de recherches sur les Politiques et le Développement Social, Montréal, 2008.
85.
Solidarity Across Borders, " The Four Demands of Solidarity Across Borders," http://www.solidarityacrossborders.org (accessed April 4, 2010 ).
86.
Coalition against the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees, visit to Laval detention center in support of Ahmad Nafaa, November 2004.
87.
9e Collectif des Sans-Papiers, Marche sur le CRA de Vincennes (March on the Vincennes detention center), January 2008.
88.
Solidarité Sans Frontières, "Pourquoi nous marchons . . ." [Why we are marching . . .], May 2006.
