In-Person Full Paper Panel
Participants:
- (Chair) James F. Hollifield, Southern Methodist University
- (Discussant) Randall A. Hansen, University of Toronto
Session Description:
This panel speaks to the conference theme of “reimagining politics, power and peoplehood” by examining contemporary migration politics through the lens of colonial histories. Taking a global and comparative perspective, with a focus on cases from across the Global South, the papers on this panel interrogate the influence of colonial legacies in shaping contemporary migration politics. Collectively, the papers refine our understanding of colonial mobility control practices and their enduring effects, by examining factors such as: the role of corporations in shaping both colonial and post-colonial migration policies in Saudi Arabia (Thiollet); the relationship between sovereignty and migration in the EU’s post-colonial overseas territories (Sharpe); colonial practices of indentured labor and their impacts on contemporary labor migration mobility in South Asia and the Gulf (Sadiq); the influence of colonial governance frameworks on contemporary returns and removals in the Levant (Hoppermann); and the significance of colonial practices of forced exile and banishment for understanding contemporary state practices of deportation, transnational repression and externalization (Adamson and Han). In doing so, the panel builds on and dialogues with recent works in the field that have sought to “decolonize” migration studies by drawing on historical work on colonial regimes of mobility control as a means of shedding light on contemporary practices of migration. The papers collectively push these debates forward by drilling down into the variety of ways in which colonial mobility regimes manifested in different contexts, and how their legacies have helped to shape a range of contemporary post-colonial mobility control practices. Composed of a mix of junior and senior scholars from institutions in North America (US, Canada); Europe (UK, France) and Asia (Hong Kong), the panel brings a global historical perspective to one of the most pressing and polarizing policy issues in contemporary politics, using a focus on colonial histories and legacies as a way of understanding the origins of contemporary political “crises” around migration.
-
View all 2025 APSA Annual Meeting Theme Panels or View all 2025 APSA Annual Meeting Pre-Conference Short Courses.
-
Browse the 2025 APSA Online Program