This essay interrogates the production of knowledge about migration in a prominent UN instrument, the Global Compact for Migration (GCM). To articulate which worlds of mobility it privileges and delegitimises, we explore the GCM’s approach to “safe, orderly and regular” migration, particularly through its formulation of “information provision” for migrants. The politics of knowledge lies in producing both a conception of “safe, orderly and regular”, linked to state frameworks and informed migrants, and its “other” – “unsafe, disorderly and irregular” – which becomes linked to risky migration and seemingly ill-informed and unruly migrants. Whilst the GCM’s concern with creating safe pathways for movement is promising, we are critical of how the notion of “safe, orderly and regular” has been produced, in conjunction with related concepts, as a means of migration management which might jeopardize its stated aspiration. It can serve to reinforce harmful processes and structures of illegalization which rest on entrenched gradations of (il)legitimacy in migration policies, supported by underlying epistemological frameworks. We consider two starting points for reimagining migration knowledges: firstly, a human rights approach, which remains limited in a number of respects, and, secondly, the fracturing of modern/colonial epistemologies.

这篇文章询问了联合国一项重要文书《全球移民契约》（GCM）中有关移民知识的产生。为了明确说明它在哪些流动世界中享有特权和合法性，我们探讨了GCM“安全，有序和正常”移民的方法，特别是通过为移民制定“信息提供”的方式。知识政治在于产生与国家框架和知情移民相关的“安全，有序和正常”的概念，以及其“其他”（“不安全，无序和无规律的”）的概念，后者与危险移民和看似病态的疾病相关知情且不守规矩的移民。尽管GCM对创建安全的移动路径的关注是有希望的，但我们对如何结合相关概念产生“安全，有序和有规律”的概念持批评态度，作为可能危害其既定愿望的移徙管理手段。它可以用来加强有害的非法化过程和结构，这些过程和结构取决于移民政策中（il）合法性的根深蒂固的等级，并得到基本认识论框架的支持。我们考虑重新构想移民知识的两个出发点：第一，人权方法在许多方面仍然受到限制，第二，现代/殖民主义认识论的破裂。