States and human immobilization

Bridging the Conceptual Separation of Slavery, Immigration Controls, and Mass Incarceration

Bibliographic Data

ID4524965
AuthorsNandita Sharma (0009-0001-6854-7008, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa)
Year2021
Volume25
Issue2
Pages166-187
Publication date2021-02-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCitizenship Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1362-1025 • E-ISSN: 1469-3593
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13621025.2020.1859188
OpenAlexW3116110931
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited27

Immigration controls and incarceration both comprise state efforts to limit people’s freedom of movement. Usually analyzed separately, both are part of the legacy of slavery. In this paper, I examine the British Empire’s first implementation of immigration controls against ‘coolie labour’ from its colony of British India following the abolition of slavery in 1835. I also examine the implementation of methods of control and discipline enacted against formerly enslaved people in the United States following its abolition of slavery in 1865. Just ten years after abolition, the U.S. also passed its first immigration controls, the 1875 Page Act. I argue that both immigration controls and mass incarceration were state methods aimed at weakening people’s position in the capitalist labour market and, more generally, to weaken people’s ability to realize social justice. Together, immigration and carceral controls created racialized and gendered categories of people denied access to the mythical institutions of liberal democracy: liberty, fellowship, and equality. Both also strengthened nationalism(s) through the production of a U.S. ‘nation’ secured against ‘criminals’ and ‘foreigners.’ By making connections between immigration controls and mass incarceration, I argue, we can more clearly recognize that the success of prison abolition and No Borders movements are, together, integral parts of the unfinished project to realize liberty

Citizenship · Democracy · Deportation · Freedom of movement · Immigration · Immigration detention · Immigration law · Imprisonment · Mass incarceration · Nationalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Prison · Racism · Sociology · State (computer science · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Law · Race, History, and American Society

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