Immigrant Protest: Politics, Aesthetics, and Everyday Dissent (SUNY Series, Praxis: Theory in Action)

Explores how political activism, art, and popular culture challenge the discrimination and injustice faced by “illegal” and displaced peoples. The last decade has witnessed a global explosion of immigrant protests, political mobilizations by irregular migrants and pro-migrant activists. This volume considers the implications of these struggles for critical understandings of citizenship and borders. Scholars, visual and performance artists, and activists explore the ways in which political activism, art, and popular culture can work to challenge the multiple forms of discrimination and injustice faced by “illegal” and displaced peoples. They focus on a wide range of topics, including desire and neo-colonial violence in film, visibility and representation, pedagogical function of protest, and the role of the arts and artists in the explosion of political protests that challenge the precarious nature of migrant life in the Global North. They also examine shifting practices of boundary making and boundary taking, changing meanings and lived experiences of citizenship, arguing for a noborder politics enacted through a “noborder scholarship.” Katarzyna Marciniak is Professor of Transnational Studies at Ohio University. Her books include Alienhood: Citizenship, Exile, and the Logic of Difference and Transnational Feminism in Film and Media. Imogen Tyler is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Lancaster University in England and the author of Revolting Subjects: Social Abjection and Resistance in Neoliberal Britain. Contents 6 List of Illustrations 8 Acknowledgments 12 Introduction: Immigrant Protest: Noborder Scholarship 16 In/Visibility 22 Part I: The Aesthetic Performance of Immigrant Protest 24 Part II: In the Field: Acts of Immigrant Protest 28 Conclusion: No Border Scholarship for a Noborder Politics 32 Works Cited 34 I. The Aesthetic Performance of Immigrant Protest 38 1. Dare to Wear—a Mosque! Immigrant Protest as Cross-Cultural Pedagogy 40 Mosque ≠ Dome + Minaret 41 Islam Is Not a Monolithic Structure 48 Muslim Does Not Mean Terrorist 50 The Veil Does Not Equal Oppression 52 Notes 58 Works Cited 58 2. The Political Aesthetics of Immigrant Protest 60 Notes 75 Works Cited 75 3. Becoming British: Exploring Citizenship through Arts Practice 78 Becoming British 79 Blood & Soil: We were always meant to meet . . . 85 Notes 93 Work Cited 93 4. Border Disorder 96 Works Cited 110 5. Loving the Alien: Indigenous Protest and Neo-Colonial Violence in James-Cameron’s Avatar 112 Racial Cinema 116 Anthropological Cinema 119 Politics and “Avatar Activism” 121 Going Native—Loving the Alien 125 Protest and Representation 127 Conclusion: Companion Species 130 Notes 132 Works Cited 133 6. Pedagogy of Rage 136 Frozen River in the Classroom: “White Trash”/“Alien Trash” 139 (Il)legality and Borders: the Idea of Difference 143 The Affect of Rage 146 Rage and Pedagogy: “An Ethics of the Affective in the Classroom” 150 Coda 153 Notes 155 Works Cited 156 II. In the Field: Acts of Immigrant Protest 160 7. On Israel/Palestine and the Politics of Visibility 162 Supplementing the Field of the Visible 163 The Iconic Order 169 “It seems like you’re living on a different planet.” 174 Notes 180 Works Cited 181 8. Everyday Acts of Resistance: The Precarious Lives of Asylum Seekers in Glasgow 184 Asylum Seekers, Dispersal, and “Non-Settlement” as the Catalyst for Action 185 Placemaking through Identity-Talk and Mobilization 188 Sharing Knowledge and Becoming “Insider Experts” 190 Taking Solidary Action, Taking Risks 193 Talking Back, Naming a Shared Reality 195 Concluding Comments 197 Notes 199 Work Cited 199 9. Pushing the Boundaries of Asylum: Everyday Resistance in Swedish Clandestinity 204 Clandestine and Clandestinity 205 Methodological and Theoretical Framework 205 Pushing the Boundaries 206 Resistance through Local Community—Inclusion through Clandestinity 210 Resistance through Counterrepresentations 213 Who Is Allowed to Be a Political Subject? 215 Relations to the State 218 Notes 220 Works Cited 222 10. Subjects that Matter? Nonidentitarian Strategies of Pro-“Migrant” and “Migrant” Protest in Germany 224 FeMigra: Walking the Tightrope 226 Kanak Attak: This Song is Ours 229 Subjects that Matter? Nonidentitarian Strategies of Political Action Revisited 233 Acknowledgments 234 Notes 234 Works Cited 236 11. Gender and the Politics of Anti-Racist and Immigrant Protest in Greece 240 Case 1: The Voiceless Victims of Globalization: Antiracist Solidarity as a Politics of Representation 242 The Greek Migration and Antiracist Context 243 Gender as Add-on and Moral Category in Antiracist Discourse on Migration 244 Case 2: “We are your children. We want our rights”: Performing a Politics of Belonging 246 The Campaign “No to Racism from the Baby’s Cot” 247 Reiteration and Mimicry as Enactments of Citizenship 247 Case 3: Hunger Striking for Rights: The Body and the Politics of the Nonidentity 250 Conclusion 253 Notes 253 Works Cited 255 12. Immigrant Protest and the Courts of Women 258 The Aporia of Migrant Rights and National Sovereignty 266 Moving Toward a New Political Imaginary 270 Through the Aporia of Protest 273 Notes 276 Works Cited 277 13. Migrant Resistance and the Anti-Raids Campaign in London 2012 282 Migrant Bust Card 283 Notes 290 14. Afterword: The Human Waste Disposal Industry or Immigrant Protest in Neoliberal Time 292 Wasted Lives 292 The Value of Waste: The Economics of Illegality 297 Conclusion: An Accumulation of Small Acts 301 Notes 302 Works Cited 302 Notes on Contributors 306 Index 312 The last decade has witnessed a global explosion of immigrant protests, political mobilizations by irregular migrants and pro-migrant activists. This volume considers the implications of these struggles for critical understandings of citizenship and borders. Scholars, visual and performance artists, and activists explore the ways in which political activism, art, and popular culture can work to challenge the multiple forms of discrimination and injustice faced by "illegal" and displaced peoples. They focus on a wide range of topics, including desire and neo-colonial violence in film, visibility and representation, pedagogical function of protest, and the role of the arts and artists in the explosion of political protests that challenge the precarious nature of migrant life in the Global North. They also examine shifting practices of boundary making and boundary taking, changing meanings and lived experiences of citizenship, arguing for a noborder politics enacted through a "noborder scholarship." This book is freely available in an open access edition thanks to Knowledge Unlatched—an initiative that provides libraries and institutions with a centralized platform to support OA collections and from leading publishing houses and OA initiatives. Learn more at the Knowledge Unlatched website at: https://www.knowledgeunlatched.org/, and access the book online at the SUNY Open Access Repository at http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12648/7127. Introduction : immigrant protest : noborder scholarship / Katarzyna Marciniak and Imogen Tyler Dare to wear a mosque! : immigrant protest as cross-cultural pedagogy / Azra Akamija The political aesthetics of immigrant protest / Rozalinda Borcila with Katarzyna Marciniak and Imogen Tyler Becoming British : exploring citizenship through arts practice / Lena Simic with Imogen Tyler Border disorder / Alex Rivera with Katarzyna Marciniak Loving the alien : indigenous protest and neo-colonial violence in James Cameron's Avatar / Bruce Bennett Pedagogy of rage / Katarzyna Marciniak On Israel/Palestine and the politics of visibility / Simon Faulkner Everyday acts of resistance : the precarious lives of asylum seekers in Glasgow / Teresa Piacentini Pushing the boundaries : everyday resistance in Swedish clandestinity / Maja Sager Subjects that matter? : non-identitarian strategies of pro-"migrant" and "migrant" protest in Germany / Petra Rostock Gender and the politics of anti-racist and immigrant protest in Greece / Alexandra Zavos Migrant protest and the courts of women / Marguerite Waller Migrant resistance and the Anti-raid Campaign in London 2012 / Anti-raid Campaign Coalition Afterword : the human waste disposal industry or immigrant protest in neoliberal times / Imogen Tyler and Katarzyna Marciniak. __Explores how political activism, art, and popular culture challenge the discrimination and injustice faced by “illegal” and displaced peoples.__ The last decade has witnessed a global explosion of immigrant protests, political mobilizations by irregular migrants and pro-migrant activists. This volume considers the implications of these struggles for critical understandings of citizenship and borders. Scholars, visual and performance artists, and activists explore the ways in which political activism, art, and popular culture can work to challenge the multiple forms of discrimination and injustice faced by “illegal” and displaced peoples. They focus on a wide range of topics, including desire and neo-colonial violence in film, visibility and representation, pedagogical function of protest, and the role of the arts and artists in the explosion of political protests that challenge the precarious nature of migrant life in the Global North. They also examine shifting practices of boundary making and boundary taking, changing meanings and lived experiences of citizenship, arguing for a noborder politics enacted through a “noborder scholarship.” The last decade has witnessed a global explosion of immigrant protests, political mobilizations by irregular migrants and pro-migrant activists. This volume considers the implications of these struggles for critical understandings of citizenship and borders. Scholars, visual and performance artists, and activists explore the ways in which political activism, art, and popular culture can work to challenge the multiple forms of discrimination and injustice faced by "illegal" and displaced peoples. They focus on a wide range of topics, including desire and neo-colonial violence in film, visibility and representation, pedagogical function of protest, and the role of the arts and artists in the explosion of political protests that challenge the precarious nature of migrant life in the Global North. They also examine shifting practices of boundary making and boundary taking, changing meanings and lived experiences of citizenship, arguing for a noborder politics enacted through a "noborder scholarship."-- Provided by Publisher