Output details

Impossible protest: noborders in Calais

The research was carried out at the port of Calais, collecting interview and ethnographic data on undocumented migrants hoping to cross into Britain and on activists and NGO workers providing humanitarian aid. The research was occasioned by a week-long protest camp and accompanying media attention that highlighted the situation of hundreds of rough-sleepers in the dunes, known locally as 'jungles'. It uses the theoretical conception of 'police' by Jacques Rancière to argue for the 'impossibility' of framing migrant political activism through the lenses of 'citizenship rights'. We argue that migrant political agency is impeded not only by policing of the border, but also by efforts to act 'on behalf' of migrants there. The article was published in a special issue on migrant protest in Citizenship Studies. The findings are addressed at academics working in this area, but have also been discussed by European 'no border' activists.