Racial Criminalization Of Migrants In The 21st Century

Over the last two decades in the West, there has been a significant increase in the arrest, imprisonment and detention of migrants. The racial criminalization and victimization of migrants and Roma people has led judicial authorities, local governments, the police, mass media and the general population to perceive migrants and 'gypsies' as responsible for a wide range of offences. Taking into consideration the political and cultural conditions that affect and interconnect societies of emigration and immigration, the contributors examine and compare a range of cases in Europe and the United States. The contributions demonstrate how the persecution of the 'current enemy' is the 'total political fact' of the 21st century in that it ensures consensus and business, or what might be termed the 'crime deal' of today. This provocative book has international appeal and will be a valuable resource for academics, researchers and policymakers with an interest in migration and social and ethnic control.

Over the last two decades in the West, there has been a significant increase in the arrest, imprisonment and detention of migrants. The racial criminalization and victimization of migrants and Roma people has led judicial authorities, local governments, the police, mass media and the general population to perceive migrants and 'gypsies' as responsible for a wide range of offences. Taking into consideration the political and cultural conditions that affect and interconnect societies of emigration and immigration, the contributors examine and compare a range of cases in Europe and the United States. The contributions demonstrate how the persecution of the 'current enemy' is the 'total political fact' of the 21st century in that it ensures consensus and business, or what might be termed the 'crime deal' of today. This provocative book has international appeal and will be a valuable resource for academics, researchers and policymakers with an interest in migration and social and ethnic control.

The book illustrates how the trend of associating migrants and refugees with criminality is on the rise. In political discourses and popular media alike, migrants and refugees are frequently portrayed as being dangerous, while cultures intent on welcoming newcomers are increasingly seen as being naïve, and providing assistance to migrants is more and more frequently subject to administrative or criminal penalties. At the same time, nondemocratic trends and practices that violate human rights and equality are gaining momentum in Europe, the US and Australia. Racism, xenophobia and anti-Islamism are simultaneously becoming more open and public; they are no longer restricted to clandestine platforms but are increasingly being mainstreamed into the political programs of parties that are entering both the EU parliaments and member state legislatures. Similar developments can be seen in the US and Australia. Such transformations in societies, governments, and institutions seem to reflect a growing amnesia regarding the lessons of the two World Wars of the 20th century, and the role that Europe, the US and Australia played in developing a post-war legal framework based on a shared, if imperfect, commitment to human rights. The book presents individual national analyses to reveal an emerging trend of “crimmigration” regardless of the peculiarities of national legislatures and internal political dynamics. By collecting original contributions from scholars based in and focused on each of these regions, it addresses above all the causes and impacts of the criminalization of migration in the early 21st century. It tackles the direct causes of these trends and encourages readers to rethink their broader political and socio-historic context. Importantly, the book does so by highlighting the ties between the criminalization of migration and equality, racism, and xenophobia. As the politics of migration become more perilous for political alliances like the EU as well for individual migrants, it is more important than ever to critically examine the cause and consequences of migrant criminalization. This collection does so from a variety of disciplinary perspectives and political traditions, seeking to overcome the distractions of charismatic politicians and the peculiar factions of national political systems, in order to reveal the underlying trends and disturbing patterns that are of interest to a broad, internationally-focused audience.

Named one of the most important nonfiction books of the 21st century by Entertainment Weekly‚ Slate‚ Chronicle of Higher Education‚ Literary Hub, Book Riot‚ and Zora A tenth-anniversary edition of the iconic bestseller—"one of the most influential books of the past 20 years," according to the Chronicle of Higher Education—with a new preface by the author "It is in no small part thanks to Alexander's account that civil rights organizations such as Black Lives Matter have focused so much of their energy on the criminal justice system." —Adam Shatz, London Review of Books Seldom does a book have the impact of Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow. Since it was first published in 2010, it has been cited in judicial decisions and has been adopted in campus-wide and community-wide reads; it helped inspire the creation of the Marshall Project and the new $100 million Art for Justice Fund; it has been the winner of numerous prizes, including the prestigious NAACP Image Award; and it has spent nearly 250 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Most important of all, it has spawned a whole generation of criminal justice reform activists and organizations motivated by Michelle Alexander's unforgettable argument that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it." As the Birmingham News proclaimed, it is "undoubtedly the most important book published in this century about the U.S." Now, ten years after it was first published, The New Press is proud to issue a tenth-anniversary edition with a new preface by Michelle Alexander that discusses the impact the book has had and the state of the criminal justice reform movement today.

In an era of mass mobility, those who are permitted to migrate and those who are criminalized, controlled, and prohibited from migrating are heavily patterned by race. By placing race at the centre of its analysis, this volume brings together fourteen chapters that examine, question, and explain the growing intersection between criminal justice and migration control. Through the lens of race, we see how criminal justice and migration enmesh in order to exclude, stop, and excise racialized citizens and non-citizens from societies across the world within, beyond, and along borders. Neatly organized in four parts, the book begins with chapters that present a conceptual analysis of race, borders, and social control, moving to the institutions that make up and shape the criminal justice and migration complex. The remaining chapters are convened around the key sites where criminal justice and migration control intersect: policing, courts, and punishment. Together the volume presents a critical and timely analysis of how race shapes and complicates mobility and how racism is enabled and reanimated when criminal justice and migration control coalesce. Race and the meaning of race in relation to citizenship and belonging is excavated throughout the chapters presented in the book, thereby transforming the way we think about migration.

This book explores the criminalisation of irregular migration in Europe. In particular, it investigates the meaning, purpose, and consequences of criminalising unauthorised entry and stay. From a theoretical perspective, the book adds to the debate on the persistence of irregular migration, despite governments’ attempts at deterring it, by taking an interdisciplinary approach that draws from international political economy and criminology. Using Italy and France as case studies, and relying on previously unreleased data and interviews, it argues that criminalisation has no effect on migratory flows, and that this is due to factors including the latter’s structural determinants and the likely creation of substitution effects. Furthermore, criminalisation is found to lead to adverse consequences, including by contributing to vicious cycles of irregularity and insecurity.

With over 240 million migrants in the world, including over 65 million forced migrants and refugees, states have turned to draconian measures to stem the flow of irregular migration, including the criminalization of migration itself. Canada, perceived as a nation of immigrants and touted as one of the most generous countries in the world today for its reception of refugees, has not been immune from these practices. This book examines "crimmigration" – the criminalization of migration – from national and comparative perspectives, drawing attention to the increasing use of criminal law measures, public policies, and practices that stigmatize or diminish the rights of forced migrants and refugees within a dominant public discourse that not only stereotypes and criminalizes but marginalizes forced migrants. Leading researchers, legal scholars, and practitioners provide in-depth analyses of theoretical concerns, legal and public policy dimensions, historic migration crises, and the current dynamics and future prospects of crimmigration. The editors situate each chapter within the existing migration literature and outline a way forward for the decriminalization of migration through the vigorous promotion and advancement of human rights. Building on recent legal, policy, academic, and advocacy initiatives, The Criminalization of Migration maps how the predominant trend toward the criminalization of migration in Canada and abroad can be reversed for the benefit of all, especially those forced to migrate for the protection of their inherent human rights and dignity.

This book offers an accessible examination of the human rights of migrants in the context of the UN’s negotiations in 2018. This volume has two main contributions. Firstly, it is designed to inform the negotiations on the UN’s Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration announced by the New York Declaration of the UN General Assembly on 19 September 2016. Second, it intends to assist officials, lawyers and academics to ensure that the human rights of migrants are fully respected by state authorities and international organisations and safeguarded by national and supranational courts across the globe. The overall objective of this book is to clarify problem areas which migrants encounter as non-citizens of the state where they are and how international human rights obligations of those states provide solutions. It defines the existing international human rights of migrants and provides the source of States’ obligations. In order to provide a clear and useful guide to the existing human rights of migrants, the volume examines these rights from the perspective of the migrant: what situations do people encounter as their status changes from citizen (in their own country) to migrant (in a foreign state), and how do human rights provide legal entitlements regarding their treatment by a foreign state? This book will be of much interest to students of migration, human rights, international law and international relations.