Indignation and Intelligibility: Contradictions that Place Vulnerable Populations ‘Off the Grid’

<p>Our paper draws on our ethnographic work regarding transnational adoption, unauthorized immigration, and deportation in order to examine the grids of intelligibility that produce adoptability and deportability. Adoptable babies, unauthorized migrants, and deportable aliens are, in some sen...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Susan Bibler Coutin, Barbara Yngvesson
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law 2015-03-01
Series:Oñati Socio-Legal Series
Subjects:
Online Access:http://ssrn.com/abstract=2564567
Description
Summary:<p>Our paper draws on our ethnographic work regarding transnational adoption, unauthorized immigration, and deportation in order to examine the grids of intelligibility that produce adoptability and deportability. Adoptable babies, unauthorized migrants, and deportable aliens are, in some sense &ldquo;off the grid&rdquo; in that aspects of their pasts took place elsewhere, or are unknown or sealed, thus enabling them to be excluded or removed from particular polities. Such individuals appear to move &ndash; between statuses, territories, and states of being. At the same time, the very possibility of such movements, indeed, of alienability, unsettles the very grids of kinship, property, nationality, and belonging on which exclusions and removals are based. Adoption, migration, and deportation are therefore processes that disturb and fascinate, as evidenced by the numerous news articles about adoptees who return to discover their &ldquo;roots,&rdquo; or the hardships and successes of migrants. These stories are not only about the individuals involved but also the nations and assumptions about national &ldquo;essences&rdquo; that make it possible to &ldquo;locate&rdquo; persons. Our analysis seeks to interrogate these assumptions, while providing alternatives to the grids of deservingness and ideas about a child&rsquo;s &ldquo;best interest&rdquo; that underpin immigration policy and adoption law.</p> <hr /><p>Este art&iacute;culo muestra el trabajo etnogr&aacute;fico realizado sobre la adopci&oacute;n transnacional, la inmigraci&oacute;n no autorizada, y la deportaci&oacute;n, para examinar las redes de inteligibilidad que fomentan la adopci&oacute;n y deportaci&oacute;n. Beb&eacute;s adoptables, inmigrantes no autorizados, y extranjeros deportables est&aacute;n, en cierto sentido "fuera de juego", ya que su pasado se desarroll&oacute; en otros lugares, es desconocido o inaccesible, lo que favorece que sean excluidos o eliminados de pol&iacute;ticas particulares. Parece que estas personas se mueven entre status, territorios y estados del ser. Al mismo tiempo, la posibilidad de tales movimientos, esto es, de extranjer&iacute;a, perturba las redes de parentesco, propiedad, nacionalidad y pertenencia en que se basan las exclusiones. Adopci&oacute;n, inmigraci&oacute;n y deportaci&oacute;n son por lo tanto, procesos que perturban y a la vez fascinan, como lo demuestran los numerosos art&iacute;culos de prensa acerca de adoptados que vuelven a descubrir sus "ra&iacute;ces", o las dificultades y los &eacute;xitos de los inmigrantes. Estas historias no est&aacute;n relacionadas &uacute;nicamente con las personas involucradas, sino tambi&eacute;n con las naciones y las asunciones sobre las "esencias" nacionales que permiten "localizar" personas. Este an&aacute;lisis busca cuestionar estos supuestos, al tiempo que proporciona alternativas a las redes de merecimiento e ideas sobre el "inter&eacute;s superior" del ni&ntilde;o en que se basa la pol&iacute;tica de inmigraci&oacute;n y la ley de adopci&oacute;n.</p> <p><strong>DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN</strong>: <a href="http://ssrn.com/abstract=2564567" target="_blank">http://ssrn.com/abstract=2564567 </a></p>
ISSN:2079-5971