Author: Sampurna Das

Author Affiliation: Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi

 

Abstract: The rise of moral panic, stigma and illegality that accompanies human migration is a recent phenomenon. This is in part made up by the increasing regulatory focus on extralegal migration; in part, by the bureaucratic ideology; in part, by the rhetoric of the accompanying moral panic; in part, by the migration flow itself. It is a potent mixture. In brief, immigrant illegality as we now see is a construct – produced and patterned by
society. The following essay will try to trace three factors that construct migrant illegality. Firstly, it will analyze how jurisprudence manufactures the category illegal migrants. Secondly, it will look at the role played by government agencies. Thirdly ,how the way we perceive borders produces illegality of certain migrants. In doing so, the essay will make references to the illegal migration issue in Assam, India.

Keywords: Assam, Bangladeshi migrants, borders, char-chapori, migration.

 

<< Published in Akademos 2019 Issue