Global citizenship in the making? Generating an inventory of migratory claims

Abstract

This article reflects on the potential and limitations of global citizenship as a concept by which to analyse the politics of precarious migration and develops a novel methodology by which to generate an inventory of migratory claims. It focuses specifically on migratory claims-making in the context of externalisation, whereby proliferating actants and complex practices of cross-border control render accountability for harm increasingly obscure. Emphasising the importance of centring the claims of people with lived experiences of precarious migration in the analysis of the politics of migration, the article develops an analytical framework that includes implicit and indirect as well as explicit and direct claims to rights, belonging and accountability. The significance of such a framework is explored through an engagement with the testimonies of people crossing the Mediterranean from the Middle East and Africa during 2015–2016. Reflecting on the value as well as the problems of interpreting migratory claims through the lens of global citizenship, the article suggests that the concept should neither be disregarded nor reified in analyses of the politics of precarious migration.