Challenging illegalization: Migrant struggles, political actions and rancière’s political philosophy

Abstract

Undocumented migrants are usually depicted as powerless figures, isolated from the public sphere. Due to their weak legal status, they are shown as passive agents submitted to the forces of the State and employers. However, in this essay, the focus is placed on the relation of the political empowerment of undocumented migrants with the reaction against their construction as mere commodity. It is argued that the process of dispossession attached to the production of migrant illegality is both political and economic and this twofold effect is challenged in the protests of undocumented migrants.