Precarious lives: Young migrants, citizenship and activism across Europe

不稳定的生活：欧洲各地的年轻移民、公民身份和行动主义

• 批准号: ES/W00545X/1
• 负责人: Vanessa Hughes
• 金额: $ 13.8万
• 依托单位: London School of Economics and Political Science
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FW00545X%2F1
• 关键词: Precarious; lives; Young; migrants; citizenship

The aims of this Fellowship is first to consolidate my research findings and make them publicly available through both academic and non-academic publications, and second to build on this research to develop a new research project in a European comparative context. This is important as my research addresses an under-researched area of migration studies and it affects a significant group of young people in the UK. The publications will address the following key contributions made by my thesis: 1) There have thus far only been few in-depth ethnographic studies of young "undocumented" migrants, especially in the UK (Bloch et al., 2014; Bloch and McKay, 2016; Sigona and Hughes, 2012). And as Bloch et al. argue '[T]he phenomenon of undocumented migration and undocumented migrants is not going to disappear, making it increasingly important to understand their heterogeneous experiences' (2014: 2). This research contributes an in-depth and nuanced understanding of how immigration status operates in the everyday life of young migrants in London. The circumstances of participants in this study are different to participants in previous studies, in that they have lived most of their lives in the UK, migrating here at a young age with their parents, instead of as young adults or more recently.2) Foregrounding immigration status within an intersectional approach, rather than starting with a state-defined immigration category, problematises these state categories and analyses how they, together with other positions, create a specific lived experience and marginalisation for young migrants. Based on this research, I argue that certain experiences in specific moments of young people's lives pertaining from the dominance of immigration status are surprisingly similar. This contributes to an understanding of how 'the state [...] is thinking about itself when it is thinking about immigration' (Sayad, 2004: 279), and how the state is producing vulnerability (Anderson, 2008). Furthermore, the analytical lens of immigration status challenges methodological nationalism and groupism that has dominated migration studies (Gidley, 2014; Nowicka and Ryan, 2015; Wimmer and Glick Schiller, 2002).3) This study demonstrates the importance of looking at time and temporality as an important factor in migration studies. Although Cwerner called to attention the neglected research area of time and migration in 2001, it remains largely neglected nearly two decades later (2001; Griffiths, 2014). My research shows time is of importance to the experience of migration in many ways, and merits further examination and theorisation. Something that I will develop in this Fellowship, as encouraged by my viva examiners.4) This research contributes to a body of work that engages a critical perspective on migration studies by drawing on the postcolonial framework of 'connected sociologies' (Bhambra, 2014), and critical race theory, to situate the study of contemporary migration in/to "the West" in its historical and global context. My argument is that "migration studies" continues to be situated in a "Western-centric" framing that avoids the legacies of empire present in the racial construction of the contemporary situation. Examining the current immigration system and its bordering mechanisms in the UK through a historical lens, allows us to understand connections between its establishment during colonialism and contemporary stratifications.5) I will build on my own research to explore these dynamics comparatively in three different European countries. This fellowship will allow me to carry out necessary desk research to establish the case studies for the comparative research and understand how precariousness is produced in different country contexts, and how citizenship and immigration status are contested and constructed through migrant activist groups.

该奖学金的目的是首先巩固我的研究成果，并通过学术和非学术出版物公开提供，其次是在此研究的基础上，在欧洲比较的背景下开发一个新的研究项目。这很重要，因为我的研究涉及移民研究的一个研究不足的领域，它影响了英国的一个重要的年轻人群体。出版物将解决我的论文所做的以下关键贡献：1）迄今为止，只有少数深入的民族志研究的年轻“无证”移民，特别是在英国（布洛赫等人，2014; Bloch和McKay，2016; Sigona和Hughes，2012）。正如Bloch等人所言，“无证移民和无证移民现象不会消失，因此了解他们的异质经历变得越来越重要”（2014：2）。这项研究有助于深入细致地了解移民身份如何在伦敦年轻移民的日常生活中运作。在这项研究中的参与者的情况是不同的参与者在以前的研究中，在他们已经住了大部分的生活在英国，移民在这里在年轻的时候与他们的父母，而不是作为年轻的成年人或最近。2）前景移民身份在一个交叉的方法，而不是从一个国家定义的移民类别，问题这些国家类别和分析他们如何，与其他职位一起，为年轻移民创造一种特殊的生活体验和边缘化。基于这项研究，我认为，在特定时刻的年轻人的生活有关的移民身份的主导地位的某些经验是惊人的相似。这有助于理解“国家[…]在考虑移民问题时，国家也在考虑自己“（Sayad，2004：279），以及国家是如何产生脆弱性的（安德森，2008）。此外，移民身份的分析透镜挑战了主导移民研究的方法论民族主义和群体主义（Gidley，2014; Nowicka和Ryan，2015;维默和Glick Schiller，2002）。虽然Cwerner在2001年呼吁关注被忽视的时间和迁移研究领域，但近二十年后，它仍然在很大程度上被忽视（2001; Griffiths，2014）。我的研究表明，时间在许多方面对移民的经历都很重要，值得进一步研究和理论化。我将在这个奖学金发展的东西，由我的万岁考官鼓励。4）这项研究有助于工作的主体，从事移民研究的批判性观点，通过借鉴“连接社会学”的后殖民框架（Bhambra，2014），和批判种族理论，在其历史和全球背景下研究当代移民在/到“西方”。我的论点是，“移民研究”继续位于一个“西方中心”的框架，避免了帝国的遗产，目前在种族建设的当代情况。通过历史的透镜检查英国目前的移民制度及其边界机制，使我们能够理解殖民主义时期的建立和当代分层之间的联系。5）我将建立在我自己的研究，以探索这些动态比较在三个不同的欧洲国家。这项奖学金将使我能够进行必要的案头研究，以建立比较研究的案例研究，并了解在不同的国家背景下如何产生不稳定性，以及如何通过移民活动家团体对公民身份和移民身份进行争议和构建。