Spectacles of immigration enforcement in the United States

The Trump administration has engaged in a deliberate spectacularisation of immigration enforcement, through the dissemination of videos depicting immigrants being deported and through mass enforcement operations in “blue” states.

Yet immigration enforcement is also characterised by its hidden aspects, suggesting a complex relationship between state power and sight.

The talk will examine how observers are attempting to explain what is happening to legality in the United States. Here Volpp will discuss the surge of contemporary interest in Ernst Fraenkel’s conceptualisation of the “dual state,” written to explain the Nazi regime’s simultaneous day-to-day normalcy and lawlessness.

Light lunch will be served – all are welcome!

The seminar is organised by the Peder Saether project Native/Immigrant/Refugee: Movement Across Contested Grounds, a collaboration between UiB’s Centre for Women’s and Gender Research (SKOK) and Center for Race and Gender, UC Berkeley.

Co-organisers are the ASYKNOW project at the Department of Social Anthropology and IMER Bergen.