Drawing on Foucauldian biopolitics, Max Weber's and Hannah Arendt's understandings of bureaucracy, and Achille Mbembe's theoretical insights into necropolitical power, I propose the notion of humanitarian bureaucracy to account for the involvement of medical personnel in the summary deportations of pregnant Comorian women in Mayotte, a French overseas department in the Indian Ocean. In addition to their usual consultations, hospital midwives are asked to assess the health of pregnant women arrested at sea in order to state whether they can be lawfully detained, while deportations happen within hours owing to the specificities of this postcolonial migration regime. The notion of humanitarian bureaucracy traces how a series of bureaucratic acts, duly sanctioned by qualified professionals, performs a minimal and fragmented biopolitical surveillance that neutralizes the question of responsibility and rejects the racialized Other into a liminal space between failing to “make live” and avoiding to “let die.” The article argues that humanitarian bureaucracy represents an ambivalent power, stemming from biopolitics yet producing necropolitics through processes of racialization. The article draws on three months of fieldwork conducted in Mayotte in 2017 and analyzes midwives’ discourses and bureaucratic practices as materialized by the medical certificates they deliver in the context of these assessments.

中文翻译：

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助产士和人道主义官僚机构：在后殖民边境管理移民

借鉴福柯的生命政治学、马克斯·韦伯和汉娜·阿伦特对官僚主义的理解，以及 Achille Mbembe 对死灵政治权力的理论见解，我提出了人道主义官僚主义的概念，以解释医务人员参与马约特岛科摩罗孕妇的简易驱逐，一个法国在印度洋的海外部门。除了通常的咨询外，医院助产士还被要求评估在海上被捕的孕妇的健康状况，以说明她们是否可以被合法拘留，而由于这种后殖民移民制度的特殊性，驱逐发生在数小时内。人道主义官僚机构的概念追溯了一系列官僚行为如何得到合格专业人员的正式批准，进行最小化和支离破碎的生命政治监视，中和责任问题，并拒绝种族化的他者进入无法“活下去”和避免“死去”之间的临界空间。文章认为，人道主义官僚机构代表了一种矛盾的力量，源于生命政治，但通过种族化过程产生了死灵政治。本文借鉴了 2017 年在马约特岛进行的三个月实地调查，并分析了助产士在这些评估的背景下提供的医疗证明所体现的话语和官僚作风。” 文章认为，人道主义官僚机构代表了一种矛盾的力量，源于生命政治，但通过种族化过程产生了死灵政治。本文借鉴了 2017 年在马约特岛进行的三个月实地调查，并分析了助产士在这些评估的背景下提供的医疗证明所体现的话语和官僚作风。” 文章认为，人道主义官僚机构代表了一种矛盾的力量，源于生命政治，但通过种族化过程产生了死灵政治。本文借鉴了 2017 年在马约特岛进行的三个月实地调查，并分析了助产士在这些评估的背景下提供的医疗证明所体现的话语和官僚作风。