UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANT ACTIVISM AGAINST DEPORTATION: AN OUTLOOK FROM CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AND THE RIGHT TO STAY

Date

2023-10

Author

Türkmen, Mert

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In liberal democracies, we have been extensively witnessing the implementation of deportation as a prevalent measure of migration management. One aspect of deportation is the linkage between migrant illegality and deportability. While migrant illegality is a social condition easing the discipline and manipulation of migrants, deportability is a ubiquitous likelihood of deportation that draws migrants into daily and constant fear. Against their racialized and spatialized exclusion, migrants appeal to various forms of protests. Yet, in this thesis, I will be focusing on the theories of civil disobedience and scrutinizing whether civil disobedience can be a legitimate way to resist deportation. I will be furthering my discussion on whether civil disobedience can be a justified mode of resistance to engage in formulating the right to stay. I argue that, in significantly harsh conditions (like conditions of inflicting irreversible harm through deportation) migrants may not have to comply with the processes of the administrative framework. In line with that, the main argument of this thesis is offered as so: the radical conception of civil disobedience initiates a dynamic of democratic empowerment for undocumented migrants by reinvigorating acts of citizenship, and it paves the way for migrants to manifest their constituent power in loosely institutional and horizontally structured modes of disobedience. The radical conception of civil disobedience is also justified since it is not solely an antagonistic dispute (like majorly including violent confrontations) with the state power but aims to address citizenry through communication for pursuing legislative change.

Subject Keywords

deportation, deportability, the right to stay, contentious citizenship, radical civil disobedience

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/105515

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis