Abstract

Forced displacement – the involuntary movement of people from their homes and livelihoods – has captured public attention through diverging discourses of humanitarianism and global xenophobia. 2.5 million asylum claims were lodged in the European Union (EU) in 2015–16 leading to national and region-wide strategies of border securitization. Refugee governance in the EU is marked by contradictory ideological positions where liberal humanitarianism, through refugee acceptance, dovetails with racial violence evidenced by ongoing detention and circuitous displacement. These divergent positions, and their resultant policies of refugee management, avoid the social reality of neoliberalisation as it pertains to widespread homelessness and work-related insecurity in major EU cities such as Paris. This disavowal occurs in a raced market and impedes the survival of refugees through insistence on self-reliance – a disciplinary logic endemic to neoliberalism and imposed on refugees upon relocation. I argue that self-reliance transforms refugees into disposable subjects in capitalism at various stages of the asylum process from escape and detention to relocation and ongoing displacement.

摘要

被迫流离失所——人们非自愿地离开家园和生计——通过人道主义和全球仇外心理的不同话语引起了公众的关注。2015-16 年，欧盟 (EU) 提出了 250 万份庇护申请，从而制定了国家和地区范围的边境安全化战略。欧盟的难民治理以相互矛盾的意识形态立场为标志，自由人道主义通过难民接受与种族暴力相吻合，持续的拘留和迂回的流离失所证明了这一点。这些不同的立场，以及由此产生的难民管理政策，避免了新自由主义化的社会现实，因为它与巴黎等欧盟主要城市普遍存在的无家可归和与工作有关的不安全感有关。这种否认发生在竞争激烈的市场中，并通过坚持自力更生来阻碍难民的生存——这是新自由主义特有的一种纪律逻辑，并在重新安置时强加给难民。我认为，在从逃离和拘留到重新安置和持续流离失所的庇护过程的各个阶段，自力更生将难民转变为资本主义的可支配主体。