Governing Migrants through Punitive Environments Ten Years from the ‘Refugee Crisis’
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36253/rifp-3950Keywords:
migration, punitive environments, EU Pact, life-support infrastructuresAbstract
This article examines the reconfiguration of the “hostile environment” approach to migration governance in Europe into “punitive environments.” Drawing on Foucault’s notion of “infra-legal illegalism,” it argues that punitive environments operate beyond criminal justice, criminalising not only legal infractions but also “unruly conducts.” Through an analysis of three national contexts (Greece, Italy, and the UK) and the 2024 EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, the article shows how punitiveness functions as a latent condition that enhances migrants’ precarity and exploitability, while also eroding the socio-economic rights of racialised citizens. It concludes by reflecting on the possibility of building a constituent counter-discourse grounded in “infrastructures of dissent” that cuts across the migrant/citizen divide.
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