An Intersectional Analysis of the Governance and Experiences of Illegalized Migration

This chapter investigates the merits of intersectionally studying the governance and experiences of illegalized migration. It does so based on an inevitably partial review of English-language scholarship, which geographically predominantly centers the United States. The chapter first discusses how the governance of illegalized migration is thus far primarily understood through the linkages between migration status and race, and thereby largely omits its intersections with gender, class, sexuality, age, and ability. The chapter argues for the importance of studying citizenship regimes through their interlinkages with racism, as well as patriarchy, capitalism, heteronormativity, and other structures of domination, and exemplifies this by outlining literature on the securitization of migration and interior policing. The chapter then details the expansive work on the experiences of migrant illegality and shows that intersectional accounts reveal their differential understandings and consequences in people’s lives. This counts for illegalized migrants themselves, as well as their (citizen) family members. Altogether, the chapter argues that an intersectional approach helps to both complexify and de-exceptionalize migration status as a legitimate marker of classification for population management and thereby provides pathways for transformative social justice.