Overview
Draws together empirical contributions which focus on conceptualizing the lived realities of time and temporality in migrant lives and journeys
Uncovers the ways in which human existence is often overshadowed by legislative interpretations of legal and illegalized
Conceptualizes and realizes the lived experiences of time with regard to those who are afforded minimal autonomy over their own time: people living in and between borders
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Table of contents (10 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book draws together empirical contributions which focus on conceptualising the lived realities of time and temporality in migrant lives and journeys. This book uncovers the ways in which human existence is often overshadowed by legislative interpretations of legal and illegalised. It unearths the consequences of uncertainty and unknowing for people whose futures often lay in the hands of states, smugglers, traffickers and employers that pay little attention to the significance of individuals’ time and thus, by default, their very human existence. Overall, the collection draws perspectives from several disciplines and locations to advance knowledge on how temporal exclusion relates to social and personal processes of exclusion. It begins by conceptualising what we understand by ‘time’ and looks at how temporality and lived realities of time combine for people during and after processes of migration. As the book develops, focus is trained on temporality and survival during encampment, border transgression, everyday borders and hostility, detention, deportation and the temporal impacts of border deaths. This book both conceptualises and realises the lived experiences of time with regard to those who are afforded minimal autonomy over their own time: people living in and between borders.
Reviews
“This interdisciplinary volume brings together accounts of how states use time as a weapon in different ways in their efforts to fight irregular migration. … This timely volume elucidates a number of aspects linking time management, control of people through detention practices and administrative procedures within which people on the move become trapped with systemic harm.” (Yasha Maccanico, statewatch.org, November 18, 2021)
“Time is more than the passing of minutes or hours. It is the space for love, arts, politics, passions, safety, connections, humanity. This compelling book illuminates time and its violent theft by state and corporate border bureaucracies. It is an analytical, provocative and necessary read.” (Prof Elizabeth Stanley, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)
“This outstanding volume takes our understanding of state crime and the undocumented migration process in an important new direction. By employing the concept of temporality, Monish Bhatia and Vicky Canning have brought together an innovative group of scholars who, collectively, weaponise what they call ‘migrant time’. Through this lens of temporality each of the chapters offers powerful new insights into the state’s repertoire of violence against asylum seekers and refugees while simultaneously bringing to the fore the resistance that this ‘hidden’ form of repression engenders in those subject to its harms” (Prof. Penny Green, Queen Mary University, UK)
“In this remarkable volume, we see vividly how time itself is an object and target of power, and rather than a natural fact, is produced through governance. By taking migration as their central framework of analysis, the contributors to this book provide a profound and memorable critical investigation of state power and the subtle violence of bureaucracy. This book is a landmark event in consolidating the incipient field of critical studies of temporality, and in situating human mobility and borders at the heart of understanding the place of time in social domination” (Prof. Nicholas De Genova, University of Houston, USA)
“Time, and the loss of time, is not just incidental in the treatment of migrants who are subject to state power. It is structural and directed as well as emphatic in its effects. This powerful book driven by two renowned scholars, Monish Bhatia and Victoria Canning, delivers this message in a clear and creative manner through chapters from the frontlines of migration scholarship. A must read” (Dr. Devyani Prabhat, University of Bristol, UK)“Bhatia and Victoria Canning bring together a stellar group of scholars from around the world to discuss how punitive migration laws steal time – which is literally our most valuable resource. This study of temporality is chock full of useful theoretical insights. Migrants are at the mercy of the host state and often have no choice but to wait for decisions, appointments, interviews, and legal and policy changes. Migrants spend countless hours building families, friendship networks, and communities – only to have that stolen away when they are detained and deported. While in immigration detention, detainees count time up – instead of down as they do in prison – as their release dates are nearly always uncertain. These are just some of the ways the authors and editors theorize temporality in the migration context. This beautifully put together collection is a must-read for any student of migration” (Professor Tanya Golash Boza, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, USA)
Editors and Affiliations
About the editors
Monish Bhatia is lecturer in Criminology at Birkbeck, University of London
Victoria Canning is senior lecturer in Criminology at the University of Bristol
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Stealing Time
Book Subtitle: Migration, Temporalities and State Violence
Editors: Monish Bhatia, Victoria Canning
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69897-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Law and Criminology, Law and Criminology (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2021
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-69896-6Published: 14 July 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-69899-7Published: 15 July 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-69897-3Published: 13 July 2021
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXXIII, 233
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: State Crimes, Violence and Crime, Terrorism and Political Violence, Ethnicity, Class, Gender and Crime, Migration, Victimology