Metropolitics

Multiplied Displacement Under Racial Capitalism: The “Migrant Crisis” in Berlin and New York City

René Kreichauf — 2025-01-31T10:17:52Z

Berlin and New York City, both self-proclaimed “migrant-friendly cities,” have long been destinations for internationally displaced migrants. Yet, as René Kreichauf explains, the façade of “migrant-friendly” belies racialized policies and practices that multiply displacement and dispossession. In New York, the inauguration of Donald Trump, and the mayor's fealty to him in the hopes of a pardon, portends an intensification of the violence that multiple displacement produces.
The 21st century

- Essays / migration, criminalization of migration, migration crisis, migrant workers, migrants, Berlin, New York, United States, Germany, asylum, displacement

Arrests of People Smugglers in Niger: A Criminalization of Mutual-Aid Practices in Migration Situations

Alizée Dauchy & translated by Oliver Waine — 2022-07-08T05:00:00Z

From the point of view of the Northern states, international migration from the South now has its designated leaders, the networks of "smugglers", which should be dismantled. Based on an ethnographic survey conducted in Niger, the author shows the lability of this role and the perverse effects of a blind repression of mutual aid.
Long ignored by European migration policies, Niger has emerged in official discourse as a transit country for West African populations heading for Europe since 2015

- From the Field / Niger, migrants, migration, criminalization of migration, borders, law, migration crisis, Global South, Africa

Lawyers and Borders: Using Legal Recourse to Oppose State Discretion?

Annalisa Lendaro & translated by Oliver Waine — 2022-05-06T05:00:00Z

In the autumn of 2020, the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais département, in northern France, prohibited associations not mandated by the state from distributing food aid to migrants on the street. While opponents of this decision have taken their case to the administrative courts, Annalisa Lendaro shows the central role of lawyers in challenging migration policies.
In a context of reinforced controls at the French–Italian border for the last 10 years, a small group of lawyers has specialized

- From the Field / migrants, law, Italy, borders, migration, migration crisis, criminalization of migration

Cracks Where the Light Gets in: Recent Legal Breakthroughs in Detention and Crimmigration in Canada

Petra Molnar & Stephanie J. Silverman — 2016-12-07T06:00:00Z

While the criminalization of immigrants has been pervasive—leading many to adopt the word “crimmigration”—that does not mean that the process is inevitable. As Petra Molnar and Stephanie Silverman report, recent court cases have begun to change the dynamic and offer potential glimmers of hope to immigrants and advocates.
Across the world, the borders between migration management and criminal law are being blurred in an ongoing, historical process referred to by migration experts as the

- Essays / immigration, Canada, immigration detention, immigration policy, immigration law, criminalization of migration, crimmigration