Seminar: Coloniality and migration law

In May, ACMRL organised a seminar on coloniality and migration law. Scholars, students, and others interested from all disciplines were invited.The programme had two main components:

• (1) a presentation by master students Luiza Gagliardi and Albena Labib on their work in progress about counter-hegemonic perspectives on immigration justice
  • Can Subaltern Legalities Speak? Counter-Hegemonic Perspectives on Immigration Justice
  • The normative debate about immigration is dominated by legal doctrine and political theory reflecting European hegemony. By looking at post- and decolonial political theory and migration case law of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights as well as of the African Commission of Human and Peoples’ Rights, this paper articulates a thinking space outside European legal doctrine and political theory.
    
    
• (2) a presentation of my Thomas Spijkerboer’s work in progress on European international migration law since 1848
  • "These invasions of men who are often lawless and always penniless" - European international law and migration since 1848
  • Since the middle of the 19th century, European states have sought to promote mobility for some while controlling the mobility of others. Throughout the period since 1848, European international law has devised ways of developing a split legality with free movement for some and restrictionism for others. The split has been developed through categories of race, class and gender. The current restrictionist developments can be best understood as part of this long-term process.