The Center for Middle Eastern Studies is pleased to present
Gregory Feldman
Simon Fraser University
University of British Columbia
Migrants from around the world grapple with the European Union’s emerging migration management apparatus. Serving the conflicting purposes of territorial security and recruitment of overseas labor, it combines such disparate policy practices as border control measures, biometric IT systems, and circular migration programs. However, this apparatus is not a function of a centrally coordinated bureaucracy, but rather of generic devices and templates that localized technicians can adapt to wide array of migration situations. It creates an ever-pervasive field of surveillance that triggers a response mechanism whenever a migrant appears as a legal or normative deviation. Ironically, its isolating effect is not limited to migrants, but also to its plethora of technicians. The latter have limited individual influence, few ties to each other, and no serious contact with the people whose movements they monitor, all of which raises crucial questions about estrangement, solidarity, and ethics in a globalized world.
Gregory Feldman teaches at the School of International Studies at Simon Fraser University. His research addresses migration, globalization, public policy, and methodological questions about global ethnography. His book, entitled The Migration Apparatus: Security, Labor, and Policymaking in the European Union, is forthcoming on Stanford University Press (2011). He has published numerous articles on the European politics behind Estonia's policy to integrate Soviet-era Russian-speaking immigrants. He founded and convened The University of British Columbia's Inter-Faculty Initiative on Migration Studies (2004-2008). He also cofounded the Interest Group for the Anthropology of Public Policy and the Network of Concerned Anthropologists.
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Contact: Liz Flanagan