Governing Migration Through Paperwork: Legitimation Practices, Exclusive Inclusion and Differentiation

To better understand migration governance and the concrete, daily practices of civil servants tasked with enforcing state laws and policies, it is important to focus on documents, which are core artefacts of bureaucratic work. These can include certificates, letters, reports, case files, decisions, internal guidelines and judgements in both digital and paper form. Based on ethnographic studies in various geographical and bureaucratic contexts, this collection shows how civil servants produce statehood, restrict migrants’ movements and engage with migrants’ strategies to make themselves legible. It contributes to the study of the state as documentary practice and highlights the role of paperwork as a powerful practice of migration control.

Sophie Andreetta is an FRS-FNRS Research Associate at the University of Liège, Belgium.

Lisa Marie Borrelli is Associate Professor at the University of Applied Science – HES-SO Valais, Institute of Social Work, Switzerland.