Papers by Laura Simocko
Deportability, distinct from but related to the act of deportation, is the threat of forced expul... more Deportability, distinct from but related to the act of deportation, is the threat of forced expulsion from the state. Although there is a growing body of literature around deportability as a concept and in the European context, there has been limited research on deportability in Ireland. Moreover, there has been minimal engagement with deportability as a racialized technology of the state. Using Ireland as a case study, this project investigates the racializing processes inherent in the construction of deportability and, in so doing, makes evident the links between immigration controls and racialized regimes of oppression.
A thematic analysis of state, media and NGO discourses in Ireland lays bare the ways in which the construction of deportability racializes ‘the deportable’. Through human rights and legal discourses, the Irish state normalizes and makes invisible the institution of deportability. NGO and media discourses, though frequently critical of the practice of deportation, reduce ‘the deportable’ to a limited number of essentialized traits, including criminality, sexual deviancy and victimhood. When read inter-textually, these discourses racialize ‘the deportable’ as Other while normalizing their condition of deportability. Narratives and expressions authored by ‘the deportable’ offer perhaps a way to counter these racializing processes, but academics must be sensitive to the role of research in Othering.
Conference Presentations by Laura Simocko
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Papers by Laura Simocko
A thematic analysis of state, media and NGO discourses in Ireland lays bare the ways in which the construction of deportability racializes ‘the deportable’. Through human rights and legal discourses, the Irish state normalizes and makes invisible the institution of deportability. NGO and media discourses, though frequently critical of the practice of deportation, reduce ‘the deportable’ to a limited number of essentialized traits, including criminality, sexual deviancy and victimhood. When read inter-textually, these discourses racialize ‘the deportable’ as Other while normalizing their condition of deportability. Narratives and expressions authored by ‘the deportable’ offer perhaps a way to counter these racializing processes, but academics must be sensitive to the role of research in Othering.
Conference Presentations by Laura Simocko
A thematic analysis of state, media and NGO discourses in Ireland lays bare the ways in which the construction of deportability racializes ‘the deportable’. Through human rights and legal discourses, the Irish state normalizes and makes invisible the institution of deportability. NGO and media discourses, though frequently critical of the practice of deportation, reduce ‘the deportable’ to a limited number of essentialized traits, including criminality, sexual deviancy and victimhood. When read inter-textually, these discourses racialize ‘the deportable’ as Other while normalizing their condition of deportability. Narratives and expressions authored by ‘the deportable’ offer perhaps a way to counter these racializing processes, but academics must be sensitive to the role of research in Othering.