This paper engages with legal and political discourses aiming to respond to the increasing presence of undocumented migrants in the European Union. It outlines a thought experiment inspired by the realisation that the contemporary perception and treatment of undocumented migrants as the Other of Europe coincides with the elements shared by most proposals for definition of minorities in international law. Using international law on minorities as a tool to shift the perspective on the juridical belonging of undocumented migrants beyond the limits of migration law, the paper shows that undocumented migrants become (non)Other. In other words, they both belong and don’t belong. Further, with the aid of the concepts of mobility, epistemic vulnerability and nomadic becoming, the paper discusses the tentative emancipatory effects of this perspective, resulting in blurring the distinction between EU citizens and undocumented migrants.
Our next Annual Conference will take place from July 6-9, 2021. It will be held in a completely novel way as a fully online Conference: ICON•S Mundo.
The Call for Papers for ICON•S Mundo is available here. Submissions for papers and panels must be made by May 1, 2021.
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