Introduction
Undocumented migrants usually mobilize to demand that governments end deportation and detention policies and initiate a regularization of their status as residents. Beyond these claims, however, their protests also possess a symbolic dimension. Their mobilizations are based on behaviours, objects, images, texts or speech acts that evoke, by reference or by association, more general political dimensions (Swidler, Reference Swidler1986; Williams, Reference Williams2004).Footnote 1 In this paper, we show that the symbolic dimension of collective actions by undocumented migrants is similar in different contexts and expresses the same meaning: the redefinition of the limits of the legal order within a territory. Our demonstration is based on a comparison of the collective actions launched by the most significant networks of undocumented migrants in France, Germany and Canada-Quebec over the last decade. We develop our analysis by focusing on three protest events (three long-term marches) that played a central role in this period.
Our argument is counter-intuitive: scholars exploring the cultural and symbolic dimensions of social movements in a comparative perspective demonstrate that they are shaped by their national contexts. In particular, laws, public policy-making, as well as institutional discourses and practices, are crucial elements: they constrain and channel the cultural production of social movements by setting the terms of the debate. By defining ‘familiar ways of doing things and seeing things’ (Polletta, Reference Polletta2008: 86), they determine what is meaningful in the public sphere and what movements are able to express and achieve to a large extent (Evans, Reference Evans1997; Polletta, 2000, Reference Polletta2004; Marx Ferree et al., Reference Marx Ferree, Gamson, Gerhards and Rucht2002). For example, the way institutions ‘construct the relation between immigrants and the receiving nation-state’ (Koopmans et al., Reference Koopmans, Statham, Giugni and Passy2005: 18–19) is crucial for the cultural dimension of migrants’ mobilizations. Different ways of building this relationship create different ‘discursive opportunity structures’, and movements will base their mobilizations on different cultural features in order to adapt to them (Koopmans et al., Reference Koopmans, Statham, Giugni and Passy2005). By extension, we might expect that the manner in which institutions construct the relationship between immigrants and the state also influences the symbolic dimension of the collective actions of undocumented migrants. In particular, because they reveal the presence of undocumented migrants in the public space, marches should be particularly sensitive to national contexts, and as a result, their meanings might be expected to differ in different settings.
We know that France, Germany and Canada are characterized by three different ‘philosophies of integration’ (Favell, Reference Favell1998). In Canada, the federal government's multicultural paradigm dominates the way immigrants and the state interact: the state assigns identities to immigrant groups and selects immigrants on the basis of cultural or ethnic criteria (Kymlicka, Reference Kymlicka1995; Labelle et al., Reference Labelle, Rocher and Antonius2009). In Quebec, more specifically, immigration policies are defined through an ‘intercultural’ framework, which differs slightly from the federal multicultural approach where immigrants are invited to embrace the dominant French culture while simultaneously invited to preserve their own cultural differences (Bouchard and Taylor, Reference Bouchard and Taylor2008). French integration policies are defined by a universalist republican paradigm (Schnapper, Reference Schnapper2004; Koopmans et al., Reference Koopmans, Statham, Giugni and Passy2005). Despite recent changes, immigration policies remain unitary and traditionally unfavourable to pluralism. The German case represents an ‘exclusive’ regime. Until the end of the 1990s, immigrants were considered to be ‘guest-workers’ (Herbert, Reference Herbert2001), and the jus-sangui law impeded their political inclusion (Brubaker, Reference Brubaker1992). This has led to an ‘institutionalized separateness’ (Brubaker, Reference Brubaker2001), which persists despite recent policy changes (Heckmann, Reference Heckmann2003; Koopmans et al., Reference Koopmans, Statham, Giugni and Passy2005; Borkert and Bosswick, Reference Borkert and Bosswick2007).Footnote 2
Considering these highly contrasting contexts, we might expect the marches of undocumented migrants to express different meanings in France, Germany and Quebec. Furthermore, we might expect these marches to define their presence in the public space symbolically through references to the republican state in France, to the state of origin in Germany and to the diaspora of minority groups in Quebec. Our research shows, however, that this is not the case.
Contextual differences may explain variations in some aspects of the collective actions of undocumented migrants, as is true of mobilizations by ‘regular’ immigrants or ethnic minorities.Footnote 3 We argue, however, that the symbolic dimension of their collective actions is shaped first and foremost by their specific and unique position in the territory. Undocumented migrants are not recognized by the state as legal actors, but are included in the public space on a daily basis (i.e., they work, go to school and even pay taxes). This position (i.e., neither included nor totally excluded) means that they are subject to governmental practices that fall outside the normal legal order (Fassin et al., Reference Fassin, Morice and Quiminal1997; Bigo, Reference Bigo2007). We show that the symbolic dimension of the mobilizations by undocumented migrants is shaped by this particular situation: whatever the specifics of the national context in which they mobilize, the meaning of their actions is linked to triggering a process of the emancipation of protestors from state power. This does not mean that context has no effect on building the claims and meaning of struggles, and as we will see it does play a role to a certain extent. Nevertheless, at a general level, the symbolic dimension of collective actions is similar across these three cases.
We illustrate this notion by focusing on one particular form of collective action: long-term marches. As shown in the literature, networks of undocumented migrants use radical forms of action in which they subject themselves to physical suffering, such as hunger strikes (Siméant, Reference Siméant1998) or lip-sewing (Edkins and Pin-Fat, Reference Edkins and Pin-Fat2005). These actions symbolically emphasize the consequences of their exclusion from citizenship. However, they also use less extreme and more traditional forms of collective action such as long-term marches (Lomnitz, Reference Lomnitz2007). Marches are one-off events that cannot be carried out on a regular basis for organizational reasons. However, they do have great significance in the repertoire of collective actions of both undocumented migrants and the excluded in general (Chabanet, Reference Chabanet2002). In this work we focus on this specific form of collective action and demonstrate that, like the more radical forms, marches also have a strong symbolic dimension. More specifically, we show that these marches express a transformation of the presence of undocumented migrants within the territory: in contrast to the institutional definition of their presence as a legal ‘anomaly’, this form of collective action entails a politicization of their presence in the public space.
In the next section, we propose a theoretical framework that establishes a connection between the symbolic dimension of collective actions and an analysis of power relations (Armstrong and Bernstein, Reference Armstrong and Bernstein2008). We draw on theories that focus on the performative dimension of collective actions (Isin and Nielsen, Reference Isin and Nielsen2008): we consider the mobilizations of undocumented migrants as acts of emancipation. Then, we define the types of power relations that undocumented migrants face in greater detail. In the last section, we present the symbolic dimension of the collective actions of undocumented migrants in France, Germany and Canada (Quebec),Footnote 4 and illustrate our argument through three long-term marches. First, however, we present the methods and sources used for this comparative analysis in more detail.
Methods and sources
Our research is based on a comparison of movements of undocumented migrants that are active in three major cities: Paris, Berlin and Montreal.Footnote 5 As shown in Appendix 1, we have selected 16 groups and networks (7 in Paris, 4 in Montreal and 5 in Berlin) that have been active in mobilizing in favour of the inclusion of undocumented migrants in recent years; they have been responsible for some of the most significant mobilizations for the rights of undocumented migrants in these three cities over the last decade. We focus on two types of collective actors: groups or networks composed exclusively of undocumented migrants (e.g., the 9e Collectif des Sans-Papiers (9th Collective of Undocumented Persons) in Paris, the Coalition Against the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees in Montreal and the Voice Refugee Forum in Berlin) and networks composed of undocumented migrants and other individual or collective actors, such as trade unions (e.g., Réseau Education Sans Frontières (Education Without Borders Network) in Paris, Solidarity Across Borders in Montreal or No Lager in Berlin). These groups and networks vary in terms of their organization, history and scope of mobilization.
In order to compare mobilizations systematically, we collected approximately 250 public documents published by these groups and networks between 2000 and 2009. The groups and networks organize and publicly justify their collective actions, such as demonstrations, marches, public meetings, lobbying campaigns, occupations and hunger strikes in these documents. They also present ‘softer’ forms of mobilizations in them, given that these include all public discursive actions that aim to present a situation as problematic, to criticize, to blame, to explain, etc. For instance, they also present a general reflection of undocumented migrants’ living conditions or of racism in society.
Our analysis consisted of a two-step approach. First, we performed a comparative analysis of the documents by focusing on claims: we systematically coded claims-making events and their discursive dimensions. This method was inspired by Koopmans and Statham (Reference Koopmans and Statham1999). However, our use differs somewhat, given that we focused exclusively on the claims formulated by movements and did not rely on newspapers as a source of evidence. We consulted the groups’ archives (most were available on their websites or on distribution lists). This first step provided a comprehensive view of undocumented migrants’ protests in our three cases. In the second step of our analysis, we focused on a smaller number of events (35), the most relevant in terms of their symbolic dimension, and performed an in-depth contextualized content analysis, focusing on their meaning. We analysed the symbolic textual references, behaviours and images that were advanced in the course of these actions, and that provided a meaning extending beyond the scope of the claims formulated.
Among these actions, marches appeared particularly meaningful because they set the stage for the public presence of undocumented migrants. In this paper, we present an in-depth analysis of three marches selected on the basis of their comprehensiveness and representativity. Although these three collective actions belong to the same repertoire, their symbolic dimension illustrates other forms of action by undocumented migrants. As we will discuss in the last section of our article, the focus on these three specific actions illustrates a broader argument concerning the meaning of the collective actions of undocumented migrants.
The acts of emancipation of undocumented migrants
Armstrong and Bernstein (Reference Armstrong and Bernstein2008) have emphasized the link between the cultural (or symbolic) dimension of collective actions and the power relations experienced by activists. Culture is connected to the ‘nature, logic, and organization of power’ (Armstrong and Bernstein, Reference Armstrong and Bernstein2008: 93). In their ‘multi-institutional politics approach’, they link ‘forms of domination and forms of movement’ (Armstrong and Bernstein, Reference Armstrong and Bernstein2008: 81), and seek to place culture at the core of these forms of domination. As a result, they propose ‘a research agenda that focuses on how power works across a variety of institutions; how activists interpret, negotiate, and understand power; and how and why activists choose strategies and goals’ (Armstrong and Bernstein, Reference Armstrong and Bernstein2008: 93). They explain that institutions are extremely powerful given that they ‘have both material and social power’ (Armstrong and Bernstein, Reference Armstrong and Bernstein2008: 81): they create categories (or ‘meaning systems’) that become accepted and are reproduced through social practices.Footnote 6 As such, culture is both a goal and a constraint for social movements. Activists seek cultural changes because they want to challenge institutional meaning systems. However, they are also constrained by these meaning systems throughout the construction of their collective actions. For example, in her analysis of the gay and lesbian movement in San Francisco, Bernstein (Reference Bernstein1997) underlines that its mobilization strategies were adopted to achieve legal changes (e.g., the repeal of laws criminalizing homosexuality), as well as to challenge a more general system of meaning that denigrates homosexuality. These strategies explain why the gay movement defines its cause through a strong public dimension and not solely by defending a ‘private’ sexual life (as the sole purpose of legal change would imply). Bernstein therefore explains why ‘coming out’ behaviours in public spaces, such as holding hands, were considered to be acts of political protest.
We propose to build on Bernstein and Armstrong's approach by regarding collective actions as concrete practices that allow activists to renew and transform the power structure in which they are embedded. The symbolic dimension of collective actions refers to the set of strategies that aim to challenge this power structure through cultural changes, such as changes in the understanding of problems, changes in nomenclature, changes in beliefs and values, etc. These strategies are implemented through highly diversified actions: the formulation of alternative discourses and collective identities, the choice of a specific organizational structure, the choice of a specific place or repertoire of collective action and the use of specific behaviours (Jasper, Reference Jasper1997; Polletta, Reference Polletta2008). They are designed to challenge the ‘meaning systems’ on which the power structure is based.
In this perspective, and following Isin and Nielsen (Reference Isin and Nielsen2008), we focus on the ‘performative’ character of collective actions. Collective actions are moments of rupture that produce new power relations and open new political possibilities (Isin and Nielsen, Reference Isin and Nielsen2008; Nyers, Reference Nyers2008; see also Benford and Hunt, Reference Benford and Hunt1992; Hamel, Reference Hamel1995; Williams, Reference Williams2004; della Porta, Reference della Porta2008). They are ‘collective or individual deeds that rupture socio-historical patterns’ (Isin and Nielsen, Reference Isin and Nielsen2008: 2). When they act collectively, people do not repeat ‘institutionally accumulated processes’ (Isin and Nielsen, Reference Isin and Nielsen2008: 10); rather, they participate in new processes. In other words, a collective action is not only a protest against a specific power relation; it is a moment in which people express a potential to challenge and redefine this power relation. As explained by Isin (Reference Isin2009), the use of the term ‘act’ allows us to describe this performative dimension and relate it directly to the form of collective action: ‘acts can refer both to deeds as well as performance, to process as well as outcomes, to conduct as well as enactment’ (Isin, Reference Isin2009: 378). Applied to undocumented migrants,Footnote 7 collective actions can be more precisely defined as ‘acts of emancipation’: actions that trigger emancipatory processes from power relations considered to be unjust.Footnote 8
As della Porta (Reference della Porta2008) points out, protests (and collective actions in general) are ‘eventful’ (Sewell, Reference Sewell1996): they confer a transformative power on protestors and movements alike. More specifically, she distinguishes three effects: cognitive, emotional and relational (della Porta, Reference della Porta2008). Protest can change protestors’ views of power relations and produce cognitive processes such as ‘cognitive liberation’ (McAdam, Reference McAdam1982); episodes of contention can also generate emotions among participants (Goodwin et al., Reference Goodwin, Jasper and Polletta2001); and collective actions can produce or reinforce networks and personal connections among participants, deepening and/or extending the scope of solidarities (Dufour et al., Reference Dufour, Masson and Caouette2010).
Collective actions constructed by undocumented migrants are designed to perform an act of emancipation for those involved and for undocumented migrants in general. Highlighting the categories of cognition, emotion and relations, we show that in the course of these marches, undocumented migrants produce – or perform – empowerment, pride and solidarities. These performances are highly symbolic because they signify an emancipation from the position they occupy in society; they signify a politicization of their presence in the public space.
In the next section, we analyse the position that undocumented migrants occupy in society and the types of power relations they face on a daily basis vis-à-vis public authorities.
Undocumented migrants and the state of exception
By definition, the condition of undocumented migrants as regards citizenship is exceptional: their presence in the territory is not recognized legally, yet the absence of legal recognition does not mean that public authorities simply ignore their presence. Certain relationships do exist between the two. The ‘state of exception’ concept (Agamben, Reference Agamben1998) envisages this very specific power relation (Walters, Reference Walters2008; Buckel and Wissel, Reference Buckel and Wissel2010).
In his political theory, Agamben (Reference Agamben1997) used the ancient Roman law term homo sacer to describe the condition of those who are ‘banned’ from citizenship and consequently live in a space that is neither fully inside nor fully outside the legal order (best envisaged as a type of ‘camp’). In these spaces, ‘normal law’ no longer applies: individuals are governed by a ‘state of exception’. They are situated in a ‘zone of illegalization’ and ‘at the limits of democracy and law’ (Bigo, Reference Bigo2007; Buckel and Wissel, Reference Buckel and Wissel2010). Agamben draws a distinction between two forms of life: the zoë or ‘bare life’ (simply being alive), and the bios (social presence in the world). Thus, the homo sacer experience a form of bare life: they are depoliticized; ‘deprived from their human rights by lack of citizenship, they can only claim to stay alive’ (Fassin, Reference Fassin2005: 367). More specifically, their condition is fully determined by public authorities’ disciplinary management, but is at the same time dependent on the humanitarian assistance those same authorities offer.Footnote 9 As Agamben argues, groups like refugees and undocumented migrants experience the most extreme forms of bare life (Agamben, Reference Agamben1998: 160). In particular, the paradigm of the ‘camp’, which is a territorial materialization of the state of exception (Fassin, Reference Fassin2005; Buckel and Wissel, Reference Buckel and Wissel2010), is particularly relevant to the situation of undocumented migrants and refugees: it is ‘the space that opens up when the state of exception starts to become the rule’ (Agamben, Reference Agamben2000: 39).
Many recent studies have shown that the ‘camp’ has become the rule for the management of migrants by public authorities: those arriving in a territory and facing a deportation measure or in the process of seeking asylum are often confined for indeterminate periods in confined spaces where the ‘normal state of law’ does not apply (Diken, Reference Diken2004; Rajaram and Grundy-Warr, Reference Rajaram and Grundy-Warr2004; Bigo, Reference Bigo2007; Kobelinsky and Makaremi, Reference Kobelinsky and Makaremi2008; Walters, Reference Walters2008). By extension, the paradigm of the ‘camp’ not only concerns those confined in these particular spaces: it is always present in the life of undocumented migrants because they constantly face the risk of being arrested and detained before being deported (Fassin, Reference Fassin2005). As we will demonstrate, the collective actions of undocumented migrants, irrespective of their specific claims, represent a direct challenge to the state of exception in which they live. The in-depth analysis of three marches shows how the symbolic and performative dimensions of their collective actions interrelate. It shows, moreover, that despite some differences, they present strong similarities.
‘Why we are marching’: three examples of acts of emancipation
Our analysis of collective actions by undocumented migrants in France, Germany and Quebec indicates that as they reveal their presence in the public space, they instil it with specific meaning. For undocumented migrants, the construction of collective actions signifies a politicization of their presence in the public sphere and a way to emancipate themselves from their condition of bare life. First, activists build autonomous spaces of life that allow undocumented migrants to regain power over their own situations. Second, their collective actions define spaces of visibility, which allow the expression of feelings of pride. Third, the creation of relational ties among activists during protest builds solidarity. These cognitive, emotional and relational effects share a common element: they push ‘the question of the speaking subject front and centre’ and ‘provoke fundamental questions about politics [and] who can be political’ (Nyers, Reference Nyers2003: 1089). The three examples that serve to illustrate our argument are long-term marches that took place in Canada, France and Germany in the second half of the 2000s.
Our first example is the ‘March to Ottawa’, organized in 2005 by Solidarity Across Borders (and No One Is Illegal)Footnote 10, a network active in Montreal since the mid-2000s. It is composed of migrants without legal status, migrants with legal status and Canadian citizens of immigrant background. Its general claims concern ‘the struggle for justice and dignity of immigrants and refugees’,Footnote 11 and its main demands are ‘the regularization of all non-status people (Status for All!), an end to deportations and detentions, and abolition of security certificates”.Footnote 12 In Quebec, Solidarity Across Borders is the most active and significant group seeking the legalization of undocumented migrants. It comprises member-activists with different legal statuses and various countries of origin. The majority of other groups actively promoting this issue in Quebec are composed of immigrants from the same country of origin or are more general human rights associations in which the large majority of activists do not have an immigrant background. The March to Ottawa was the first significant collective action organized by Solidarity Across Borders. From 18–25 June 2005, up to 1000 activists and supporters (i.e., at its high point) marched from Montreal to Ottawa to demand that ‘a full regularization program for refugees and non-status people be implemented immediately’.Footnote 13
Our second example is the march from Paris to Nice organized by the Coordination des Sans-Papiers 75 (CSP 75) and activists from their support networks in May 2010. This march was associated with the occupation of a building in Paris. The CSP 75 was created in 2008, when a major strike was launched by undocumented migrant workers. This movement advocated the regularization of undocumented migrant workers, and it was coordinated, at first, by the CGT trade union (Confédération Générale du Travail (General Labour Confederation)). Some undocumented migrants living in Paris soon expressed their dissatisfaction with the CGT and organized CSP 75. They demanded the regularization of all undocumented migrants and accused the CGT of using them for its own purposes. From May 2008 to June 2009, approximately 500 undocumented migrants from the CSP 75 occupied the Bourse du Travail in Paris where the CGT's offices were located in order to put pressure on the trade union. After being evicted in June 2009, the CSP 75 occupied another building north of Paris, where they remained until August 2010. These activists immediately renamed the occupied building the ‘Ministry for the Regularization of All Undocumented Migrants’. At the same time, a group of undocumented migrants organized a march from Paris to Nice, where a summit on immigration issues between the French government and heads of African states was to take place.
Our third example is a ‘tour’ across Germany organized by the Caravan for the Rights of Refugees and Migrants in May and June 2007. The Caravan is a nationwide network that was created at the end of the 1990s by groups of asylum-seekers and undocumented migrants protesting against racism, deportations and the ‘residence obligation law’ (Residenzpflicht),Footnote 14 and for the regularization of all undocumented migrants. It is the most significant network of undocumented migrants active in Germany, and is composed of several groups present in the largest German cities. In Berlin, the network is represented by the group The Voice Refugee Forum. As its name suggests, one of the Caravan's main forms of collective action is organizing regular ‘protest tours’ across Germany; the network was officially launched after a 6-week protest tour in Germany in the summer of 1998. These tours are a similar form of collective action to marches, although they are organized differently: undocumented migrants travel from one city to another and organize collective actions in every city in which they stop. The tour organized in May and June 2007 was designed to demand the regularization of undocumented migrants, as well as to protest against the G8 Summit to take place in Heiligendamm in the north of Germany. Its arrival therefore coincided with the larger counter-Summit organized by the global justice movement.Footnote 15
These three cases differ with regards to the networks involved, contexts of emergence and even specific claims. However, from the point of view of their symbolic dimension, they are similar in that they redefine the presence of undocumented migrants in the public space through the performance of cognitive, emotional and relational processes.
The cognitive effects of collective actions and the building of an autonomous space of life
First, in all three cases, marches are an opportunity for undocumented migrants to regain power over their own lives. The march aims to produce a cognitive effect on participants: it makes them aware that, despite their situation of legal exclusion, they can formulate claims in the public space like other social groups and can therefore act like citizens who have a legal residence status.
In the march from Montreal to Ottawa, this dimension is apparent in the choice of a symbolic date, as seen in the historical references contained in the call launched by Solidarity Across Borders:
We march on the 10th anniversary of the “Bread and Roses” March against poverty, organized by Quebec women, and the 70th anniversary of the On-to-Ottawa Trek, organized by unemployed workers during the Great Depression; we march in the tradition of those previous efforts for social and economic justice.Footnote 16
The choice of this date is meaningful: by referring to former protest events, the activists aim to associate their mobilization with earlier mobilizations that were considered to have successfully changed power relations. Moreover, the reference to social groups, such as women and unemployed workers, which have exercised their citizenship rights, is a direct challenge to their exclusion from citizenship. More generally, this cognitive effect of empowerment aims to transform undocumented migrants from subjects to actors. In the same document, therefore, the march is described as a way to regain power over one's own life. It is defined as the construction of an autonomous space of life:
For every arbitrary detention, for every summary deportation, for every minute spent in jail without charge or trial, for every anxious and dehumanizing day spent waiting for status – all the days, months, years that the government has stolen from us – we will take back minute by minute, with every step, on our march from Montreal to Ottawa. Join us and take back stolen time.Footnote 17
In France, the march, which is described as a ‘bright event’, is seen as the first step in a larger process and related to former collective actions that have led to the regularization of undocumented migrants:
A seed has been sown and this seed is going to grow. Other more important marches will take place. Since the Saint-Bernard mobilization, every two or three years, a bright event is needed for our movement to remain visible. In the past few years, Cachan and the occupation of the Bourse du travail in 2008 have played that role. It was also the aim of this march in 2010. … It is only during these types of events that our movement becomes popular and the government steps back, allowing some regularizations.Footnote 18 [authors’ translation]
This cognitive process of empowerment is also noticeable in the choice of the name ‘Ministry for the regularization of all undocumented migrants’, the building that served as the starting point for the march. This name is a symbolic reappropriation of the political space: it is a way of claiming that undocumented migrants are part of the French polity and that they have the power to transform it through their actions. It is also a direct response to the controversial creation of the Ministère de l'immigration, de l'intégration, de l'identité nationale et du développement solidaire (French Ministry of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Solidarity Development) in 2007.Footnote 19 In other words, it is a manner in which to gain power over public authorities and trigger a process of emancipation through participation in the public space.
In Germany, many of the debates organized during the tour related to previous experiences involving collective actions that were considered successful and encouraging:
Some examples were provided, which offered encouragement. Examples of successful fights against deportation, such as the occupations and hunger strikes of Iranian refugee-activists. … We also heard about the history of Debru E., a well known refugee-activist in Neuburg, who was almost deported a few months ago. Thanks to the solidarity of the Flüchtlingsrat and the Caravan, he managed to avoid deportation and had his request for asylum recognized.Footnote 20 [authors’ translation]
This cognitive process of empowerment is also directly related to what the organization of the tour means for undocumented migrants. As a result, this tour is described as the expression of a space of ‘freedom’. It represents an emancipation from their ‘inhuman condition’ in their countries of origin and from the ‘internal borders’ in Germany:
When most of us (migrants as well as refugees) left our destroyed countries, we did not leave as free women and men. We were forced to leave due to the unbearable and inhuman conditions that were imposed on us there. … With this tour, we express our freedom and overcome the internal borders imposed on us by the German government through the Residence Obligation Law against refugees.Footnote 21 [authors’ translation]
In fact, protestors claim that the simple fact of acting collectively is to regain power over processes of exclusion: ‘We are prepared to take this course of action to achieve our freedom. For the space of our freedom today is the space of our common struggle.’Footnote 22 [authors’ translation]
As our analysis illustrates, this cognitive process of empowerment takes on different, concrete forms depending on the context in which undocumented migrants mobilize. Thus, the comparison demonstrates that the degree of generality of discourses varies. In France, the movement appears to be more entrenched in society, developing claims related to work and living conditions. At the other extreme of the continuum, in Germany, we observe that detention and deportation procedures are a central point of reference in the movement's discourses, referring to the specific living conditions of undocumented migrants. The Quebec/Canada case appears to fall somewhere in between: activists refer to successful mobilizations from the past when staging their citizenship claims.
Nevertheless, beyond these specific instances, and as the three marches illustrate, the cognitive processes have a common meaning: collective actions constitute a moment of collective empowerment in which undocumented migrants can behave like ‘regular’ citizens. By constructing an autonomous space of life, undocumented migrants convey the message that they are able to ‘become political’ (Isin, Reference Isin2002: 275) and emancipate themselves from the state of exception. Aside from building an autonomous space of life, the meaning of the marches also involves the issue of undocumented migrants’ visibility and the emotional dimension of collective actions.
Building a space of visibility and the emotional dimension of collective actions
As a form of collective action, the marches have been considered as a way in which to provide wide public exposure to participants and their cause. As a result, these actions have expressed a ‘refusal to be invisible’. In Canada, this notion is illustrated by the fact that activists organized daily radio reports during the event and that they used highly visible artistic forms of expression during the course of the march.
The NO ONE IS ILLEGAL march includes interactive art and theatre elements to convey our opposition to borders, and our solidarity as human beings. … Our diversity, healthy craziness and human bonding will complement the anger, sweat and tears of our struggle for dignity and justice, as we march to Ottawa. This will be a true cultural event in which all the marchers can participate. Art, theatre and culture are a human right for all to enjoy and take part in!Footnote 23
This strategy is linked to an emotional process: public visibility is both an expression and a trigger of feelings of pride among participants. This was clearly expressed in a newspaper-style document produced by Solidarity Across Borders and distributed to participants during the event:
We need to organize to make our voices heard, to unite with one cry, the cry of the oppressed. Our fight is one, our enemy is the same. Our fight is for life with dignity. Lift your faces in pride, for they have stolen everything but our dignity.Footnote 24
Through their collective actions, undocumented migrants escape the position of invisibility they normally occupy because of the risk of police surveillance. They are symbolically situated at the heart of the public space. This process signifies a politicization of their presence because it directly challenges the institutional representation of their presence as ‘abnormal’. In other words, their presence is symbolically staged in the public space so that it will become a political fact.
Like the March to Ottawa, the march from Paris to Nice and the Caravan tour in Germany were viewed as events that enabled the definition and demonstration of feelings of pride (through highly visible forms of collective actions). The visibility of this collective action, and the emotional process associated with it, is underlined in a report prepared by the organizers of the march from Paris to Nice 3 months after the event:
All marchers feel like they have participated in something exceptional, from the reception that we received everywhere, as well as on a personal level, for the human relationships we developed with this experience, between local supporters and marchers or among the marchers themselves, was quite unexpected. … This “African” march (walking, dancing, drumming) has shown the ever-renewed strength of this banality, that it is not enough to lose themselves in discussions and planning around a table. Rather, there is a need to act, to march in order to generate ideas and foster a spirit of initiative; it is often during action that things are built, developed and done at their best.Footnote 25 [authors’ translation]
In Germany, the public visibility gained during the course of the march was also presented as a way to reinforce the determination and pride of protestors:
The German immigration and asylum policies, its exclusion and deportation apparatus, were very clearly made public and were exposed to the people on the way to Heiligendamm. We brought the isolation of refugees to an end through our mutual solidarity. The resistance of refugees who are fighting against the deportation system was reinforced.Footnote 26 [authors’ translation]
These feelings of pride and determination were coupled with emotions of anger that emerged or were reinforced during the tour. Long-term collective actions such as the tour constitute events during which personal experiences are shared and the injustices faced by some individuals become collective. As a result, during the tour in Germany, protestors organized several memorials for undocumented migrants who had died during their arrest by the police or during deportation. In addition, they organized several protest actions in front of retention centres. In the course of these particular actions, protestors described themselves as being ‘in a fighting-spirit’Footnote 27 and ‘very moved by the situation of these people’.Footnote 28
The collective actions of undocumented migrants allow them to gain visibility in the public sphere and present their claims with greater resonance. Beyond this instrumental dimension, however, public visibility is also a way to trigger and express emotions of pride among participants. As our comparative analysis shows, depending on the contexts in which undocumented migrants mobilize, feelings of pride can take different forms. In Quebec, for instance, pride is more often associated with a collective identity defined in terms of country of origin than in Germany or in France. This could be related to Quebec's immigration policies, which were developed on the basis of multiculturalism and interculturalism, as mentioned in the introduction. In France, this feeling of pride is more often associated with an identification with a specific social class than in Germany or Quebec. This distinctiveness may be related to trade union involvement in the movement, which is much more significant in France than in the other two cases.
However, beyond these differences, the emotional process still has a common meaning. These three marches illustrate the fact that this process is highly symbolic: it is a direct challenge to the situation of invisibility of undocumented migrants in the state of exception and to the feelings of dehumanization associated with the ‘bare life’. In the last section of the paper, we focus on the relational dimension and illustrate the specific meaning of solidarity-building through the mobilizations of undocumented migrants.
Relational effects and building solidarities
Protest events constitute an instance of solidarity-building between undocumented migrants and other activists outside their networks. It is also an instance during which the solidarity among migrants is deepened. Since they are long-term actions, marches are probably the most illustrative examples of this dynamic of ‘networking in action’ (della Porta, Reference della Porta2008). These two dimensions were therefore underscored by the group Solidarity Across Borders during the march from Montreal to Ottawa:
By demanding Status for All we want to break the fear and isolation associated with the reality of being a non-status person. A Status for All demand rejects the divide-and-rule tactics used by the state to classify migrants as “deserving” versus “undeserving”, or “good” versus “bad” immigrants. We aim to create genuine solidarity and support between all migrants, whether they are new immigrants, undocumented workers, refugees, or temporary workers.Footnote 29
For Solidarity Across Borders, one of the main objectives of the march was to redefine the relationships among undocumented migrants and undocumented workers and other citizens. This goal was reached symbolically by the collective action itself: the fact that undocumented migrants were able to participate in the organization and implementation of this action meant that they had established connections of solidarity. In this regard (i.e., beyond the outcome of the action), the activists extolled the success of the march.
In France, undocumented migrants aimed to construct a space where they could foster solidarities and build a collective identity with the march from Paris to Nice and the occupation of a public building in Paris. Thus, activists organized many different activities in the area they occupied: it was designed as a logistical space for activist meetings, where undocumented migrants could converge and join the movement, as well as a ‘space of political, cultural and life meetings’.Footnote 30 In this perspective, the occupation was permanently linked with the march (it coordinated its progress and broadcasted daily videos through its website):
We have organized all sorts of events in this place: concerts, drop-in days, film showings, festivals, etc. We have also developed various activities: language and computer courses, Velorution workshops, book workshops, video workshops. … This has served to demonstrate that, aside from our political fight, we were able to escape the condition of isolation in which the government intends to keep us.Footnote 31 [authors’ translation]
As a result, the occupation was developed as a way to demonstrate publicly that undocumented migrants were able to ‘escape their condition of isolation’. What is meant by the term ‘isolation’ here is both a condition of individual isolation – the notion that undocumented migrants cannot organize in solidarity – and a more general condition of the isolation of undocumented migrants in society. This relational dimension concerns more than the consolidation of solidarity ties between undocumented migrant activists; these collective actions also intended to construct solidarities with potential supporters:
Thanks to your support and to the demonstrations and debates you organized, this march is already a success. The diversity of organizations, associations, unions and individual support strongly show that the treatment of undocumented migrants has a favourable echo in the population. … Struggles of undocumented migrants, precarious workers, the unemployed and retired people participate in the same battle conducted by workers to guarantee their living conditions, which include the protection of their wages, but also the right to accessible health services for all and the right to housing among other things.Footnote 32 [authors’ translation]
As shown in the above quotation, the march is itself a form of emancipation from the state of exception, given that it produced solidarity ties between undocumented migrants and other social groups. Consequently, this process also involved linking the claims of undocumented migrants to those of other social groups.
In the ‘Caravan-Tour 2007’ in Germany, for instance, this process took the form of a day devoted entirely to ‘exchanges and socialization between activists of the Caravan-network and residents in the Neuburger refugee-camp’.Footnote 33 This relational process is also more general in nature and is related to the construction of ties with other movements in view of the protest against the G8 in Heiligendamm:
The point is to use the summit as a symbol of global ruling relationships, to criticize existing circumstances and carry discussions about alternatives into society. For us, the G8 summit is simply the occasion; far beyond this, our purpose is common resistance.Footnote 34 [authors’ translation]
From these examples, it is clear that in addition to the cognitive and emotional processes, the collective actions of undocumented migrants also signify emancipation from the state of exception with respect to relational dynamics. In the course of their protests, activists strive to act in solidarity and strengthen their connections.
Again, these relational processes assume different forms depending on the contexts in which undocumented migrants mobilize. For instance, in Germany, where much of the mobilization is related to the Residenzpflicht, the primary aim is to strengthen the connections among undocumented migrants. In France and Quebec, given that mobilizations are more often related to diversified experiences (e.g., working or housing conditions), the primary aim is more often to build connections with actors from other fields. Also, since the French movement is comparatively more established, the aim is to consolidate connections, while in Germany and Quebec the aim is to build them.
Beyond these differences, the examples of the three marches nevertheless demonstrate that these relational processes share a common meaning. As they act collectively in the public space, undocumented migrants convey the message that they are able to emancipate themselves from social isolation and build solidarities.
As these three marches illustrate, mobilizations by undocumented migrants, as collective acts of emancipation, challenge the state of exception in which they are placed by public authorities. Acting collectively, they redefine power relations and construct leeway for themselves within society. These collective actions have cognitive, emotional and relational effects: they aim to empower undocumented migrants, create feelings of pride and foster relationships of solidarity. These three processes are not new, and other studies have shown their significance in several movements (della Porta, Reference della Porta2008). However, they have a specific meaning for undocumented migrants. As these marches have shown, undocumented migrants symbolically redefine their presence and situate themselves outside the state of exception. In the course of the marches, undocumented migrants consciously ‘stage’ their presence in the public space in order to contest the state of exception. These actions allow them to move from a position of individual isolation and invisibility to a situation where they can act collectively, occupy the public space and influence the features of this space. As a result, undocumented migrants invent strategies to concretely challenge their status in the course of the protest. Through their mobilizations, undocumented migrants cause new horizons of action to emerge and foster discourses that signify emancipation from the state of exception.
Conclusion
Studies inspired by neo-institutionalist approaches have shown that the cultural dimensions of collective actions are shaped by the political contexts in which they take place from the outset. Our empirical analysis demonstrates that the symbolic dimension of collective actions by undocumented migrants is similar in different contexts. We used a two-step approach to explain this empirical puzzle.
First, we based our analysis on a conceptualization of the symbolic component of collective action by focusing on power relations. In this perspective, we have shown that the mobilizations of undocumented migrants possess strong symbolic similarities across contexts because they concern people who face a unique form of power relation: their condition is heavily determined by disciplinary management and humanitarian assistance carried out by public authorities.
Next, we suggested that this ‘exceptional’ (i.e., in the sense of a state of exception) form of power relation provides a specific meaning to the mobilizations of undocumented migrants. Their collective actions are a way to create autonomous spaces of life, spaces of visibility where they claim their public existence and spaces of solidarity among people living in similar situations, as well as between themselves and other social groups. These performances are symbolic because they signify emancipation from the state of exception.
This conclusion does not invalidate the argument that context influences the symbolic aspects of collective actions. For each criterion considered (cognitive, emotional and relational), some variations do exist among our cases. Nevertheless, at a certain level of generalization, it is possible to ascertain common meanings in the collective actions of undocumented migrants. The situation of formal radical exclusion in which they live appears to trigger a common pattern of resistance and reaction: collective actions are a way to seek (and create) emancipation.
The specific focus of our analysis raises several other questions. First, are our results valid for mobilizations by undocumented migrants taking place elsewhere? Our argument would lead to an affirmative answer, at least in countries where the rule of law is strongly developed and applied. Obviously, other empirical evidence will be necessary to support this affirmation, but we believe that our cases are sufficiently different in terms of context (i.e., Germany, France and Canada are three countries with different philosophies of integration) to support the argument's holding for other democratic societies as well.
Is our analysis valid for mobilizations by other excluded or marginalized groups? Undocumented migrants are ‘the excluded among the excluded’ (Balibar, Reference Balibar2000) and consequently occupy a very specific social position relative to other social groups. However, we argue that the extreme case of undocumented migrants makes the particularities of the mobilizations of the excluded more visible overall. In this regard, we propose the working hypothesis that the more people face exclusionary power relations, the more their collective actions will possess the features of ‘acts of emancipation’.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Jane Jenson, Eric Montpetit, Marcos Ancelovici, Renaud Goyer, Sylvain Lefèvre and the reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article. We would also like to thank Cristina Cusano for her help with editing, and Vanessa Bevilacqua for her help with data collection and coding. The authors received financial support from the CPDS and the CERIUM (post-doctoral grant, 2008–2010; beneficiary: Pierre Monforte) and from the SSHRC [Social sciences and humanities research council of Canada] (individual research grant, 2008–2012; beneficiary: Pascale Dufour).
The groups and networks of undocumented migrants mobilizing in Berlin, Montreal and Paris: organization, scope of mobilizations and time of emergence
