Status (Im)Mobility and the Legal Production of Irregularity: A Sociolegal Analysis of Temporary Migrants’ Lived Experiences
| DOI | 10.1177/0964663919894726 |
| Author | Sarah Smit,Jean-Baptiste Farcy |
| Published date | 01 October 2020 |
| Date | 01 October 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Status (Im)Mobility and
the Legal Production of
Irregularity: A Sociolegal
Analysis of Temporary
Migrants’ Lived Experiences
Jean-Baptiste Farcy and Sarah Smit
UCLouvain, Belgium
Abstract
By combining legal analysis with data obtained through a longitudinal and qualitative
fieldwork, this article looks at the impact of time and temporality on migrants’ trajec-
tories. We find that legal insecurity is experienced by the majority of migrants residing
lawfully in Belgium as a result of temporal constraints. Indeed, we argue that enforced
temporariness and the conditionality of migrants’ stay increase the risk of precariousness
and irregularity irrespective of migrants’ nationality. The article also looks at the con-
sequences of legal insecurity on individuals’ trajectories. Since legal stay may be subject
to disruptions, migrants with temporary status share the feeling of living in a situation of
liminal legality and liminal times. However, they can find ways to overcome these
temporal constraints using coping strategies. Through a sociolegal analysis, this article
sheds light on temporality as a normative constraint as well as an individual experience
creating immobility.
Keywords
Immigration policies, international migration, irregularisation, legal status, status mobi-
lity, temporariness, time
Corresponding author:
Jean-Baptiste Farcy, Faculty of Law, Charles de Visscher Centre for International and European Law
UCLouvain, Place Montesquieu 2, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve 13, Belgium.
Email: jean-baptiste.farcy@uclouvain.be
Social & Legal Studies
2020, Vol. 29(5) 629–649
ªThe Author(s) 2019
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/0964663919894726
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Introduction
I attempted to do a declaration of nationality because I have been in Belgium now [ ...] over
ten years. And you need five consecutive years in order to be able to do a declaration but I
was refused because there is a month and a half where I was in an illegal status. [ ...]So
now they consider that I have only been in Belgium for 3 years. I was unable to vote for the
elections here, and I was also unable to do the papers for nationality [ ...]. I had no idea that
it was going to have an impact.
– Martin (November 2018)
Over the past decades, the complexity of immigration policies in most European
countries has been compounded by frequent legal reforms. This resulted in increas-
ingly selective policies, a reinforcement of the control of entry and inconstant national
legal frameworks. This trend is not without consequences on migrants’ life traject ories
(Schuck, 2007). Migrants indeed share a particular relationship with the law and
national legal systems since crossing international borders means crossing legal
boundaries and entering the territory of a given state according to different formal
or informal modes – for example, family reunification, asylum, work visa, undocu-
mented entry and so on – which leads to their classification into different legal
categories and status. These legal categories shape migrants’ ability to enjoy socio-
economic rights, including access to the labour market, and they have a significant
impact on migrants’ living conditions, everyday experiences and future opportunities
in the host country. Through legal categories, destination states construct layers of
status – what Morris (2003) calls ‘civic stratification’ – and produce legal precarious-
ness. Continuous presence on the territory is often conditional and migrants risk losing
their residence permit for various reasons, sometimes beyond their own control. Thus,
while governments allow migrants’ presence on their territory according to specific
conditions, migrants endure limitations and constraints that reduce their autonomy in
essential areas of their everyday life (Bolzman, 2016).
Time and temporality are essential – yet often overlooked – factors to understand the
ways in which the legal framework impacts on migrants’ lives and trajectories. Migra-
tion is as much concerned with mobility and space as it is with time (Cwerner, 2001).
The very definition of migration implies that people move, internally or across interna-
tional borders, for a minimum period of time. Short-term mobility, such as tourism, is
usually not considered as migration. Beyond the duration of mobility per se, time
structures migrants’ trajectories in different ways, including through the length of time
they are allowed to remain on the territory or the temporal requirements to obtain
citizenship (Baubo¨ck, 2011).
In this article, we are concerned with the ways in which time rather than space shapes
migrants’ experiences and trajectories. Using a thorough empirical and qualitative anal-
ysis, we are looking at the temporal dimensions of migrants’ stay in the country of
destination and the rhythms of their post-arrival experiences. In particular, we argue
that there exists a specific relationship between the temporalities imposed on migrants by
immigration policies and administrative practices and the process of irregularisation.
630 Social & Legal Studies 29(5)
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