Milena Chimienti

Mobilization of irregular migrants in Europe: a comparative analysis

Abstract Why and how do those who by definition seek to avoid the attention of the public and who lack resources manage to mobilize collectively? Comparing the situation of irregular migrants in three European cities (Copenhagen, London and Paris), this article aims to provide some understanding of the reasons for the mobilization, or absence of mobilization, of irregular migrants. It also seeks to explore the processes of development in these movements. In exploring the determinants and modes of irregular migrant mobilizations, this paper builds on Axel Honneths theory of recognition and expands the analysis provided by theories of social movements of the passage from individual suffering to collective action.

Selling Sex in Order to Migrate: The End of the Migratory Dream?

This article analyses the trajectories of female migrant sex workers in Switzerland, and discusses the ambivalently empowering and disempowering subjective experiences of the people involved in their varying local contexts. It shows that sex work represents, on the one hand, a chance for women to migrate legally, to find work in order to achieve their migratory projects or just to survive. On the other hand it highlights that the link between migration and sex work is emblematic of the cost of entering Europe today, and questions the extent to which migrating through sex work could mean the end of an improvement in quality-of-life through migration. This article gives a differentiated analysis of sex work and the functioning of agency, in order to grasp the mechanisms and conditions of this particular type of migration.

Super-diversity and the art of living in ethnically concentrated urban areas

This article discusses how local diversity is being experienced by Somali immigrants who have previously lived in the Netherlands and are now residing in London. It explores the various challenges and potential advantages of living in homogenous urban areas within a super-diverse city and focuses on three situations: (1) when homogeneity is functional and leads to living in parallel worlds; (2) when homogeneity creates social reproduction, even when located in a super-diverse city; and (3) when people manage to oscillate between both worlds – i.e. between homogenous urban areas and the potential offered by a super-diverse city. The article argues that migrants trace different pathways in the context of super-diversity. They have the ability to operate at different scales – the locale and the cosmopolitan super-diverse metropolis. However, the most vulnerable people have more difficulty in accessing and benefiting directly from the potential offered by super-diversity.

From control policies to health policies as a tool for inclusion

For some years, the multi-dimensional perspective on migration and health issues has lead to grasp these phenomena in a broad way and to regard them as societal dynamics of the differentiation of life worlds. This sensitivity to differentiate not only implies different cultural ways of living, but also a differentiation of social rights affiliations, as exemplified by the discussion on health services for illegal workers. In order to give the proper answer to a specific problem, the challenge for our societies will be to deal with these differences and to grasp them as something normal.

Gentrification of Progressive Red Light Districts and New Moral Geographies: The case of Amsterdam and Zurich

Abstract Even though there is a long tradition of red-light districts (RLD) being concentrated within the city centre, gentrification policies in many European cities now aim at spatially dispersing the sex market (and its workers) to the fringes of the city. Moving RLDs out of the city centre (or transforming them into more-upscale entertainment provision) calls into question the physical place allotted to sex work in our cities, as well as the moral geography behind these decisions. This article examines urban regeneration processes in two particular European cities – Amsterdam and Zurich – both cities with a long history of progressive drug and sex-work policies where sex work has been part of the visible urban fabric. In the article we look at urban policies and the legal framework, as well as at moral reasoning and discourses around the legitimacy of moving sex-workers away from city centres. We argue that in both cities moral arguments play an important role in the legitimization of the transformation of the RLD which contributes to a new race and gender order that stigmatises sex-workers as a group as if they were all victims of trafficking.

The failure of global migration governance

ABSTRACT The deconstruction of the moral polity around forced migration proposed by Thomas Faist in his article “The moral polity of forced migration” can, in some ways, be interpreted as an analysis of the failure of global migration governance. In this comment, I review the challenges faced by those claiming their human rights, suggesting – in addition to Faist’s explanations – some further causes of and consequences for the current situation. I then explore the type of claim made by refugees in their protests, using the concept of weak agency, which relativizes the statement made by Faist that their claim is not subversive.