Counter-Archiving Migration: Tracing the Records of Protests against UNHCR

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Ibreck, Rachel; Rees, Peter and Tazzioli, Martina. 2024. Counter-Archiving Migration: Tracing the Records of Protests against UNHCR. International Political Sociology, 18(4), ISSN 1749-5679 [Article]

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/ips/olae035

Abstract or Description

The archives of migration are piecemeal and scattered. This is both an epistemological problem, and a matter of political concern in an international order that forces people to migrate, racializes them, and renders them subject to violence. In response, we explore the potential of counter-archiving migration. First, we explain why archives matter politically, and consider which traces of migration are stored and which are absent or lost. Second, we develop a methodology for counter-archiving migration. Third, we illustrate a process of counter-archiving, taking protests and violent evictions outside the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) offices as an analytical lens. We begin with an “along the grain” reading of official archives; we then turn to ethnography to trace the memories, practices, and material remnants of migrants’ struggles. Our analysis makes the case for counter-archival work in and beyond the field of migration. We argue that this approach serves to disrupt the epistemic violence of classification systems and categories associated with border violence; to chart the contestations and transformations of the global order from below; and to articulate new horizons of justice.

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Article

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https://doi.org/10.1093/ips/olae035