“My Visa Application Was Denied, I Decided to Go Anyway”

Interpreting, Experiencing, and Contesting Visa Policies and the (Im)mobility Regime in Algeria

in Migration and Society
Author:
Farida Souiah
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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/arms.2019.020107
Keywords:
Algeria; harragas; mobility regime; undocumented migrants; visa policy
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Abstract

This article explores the ways people targeted by restrictive migration and mobility policies in Algeria experience, interpret, and contest them. It focuses on the perspective of harragas, literally “those who burn” the borders. In the Maghrebi dialects, this is notably how people leaving without documentation are referred to. It reflects the fact that they do not respect the mandatory steps for legal departure. Also, they figuratively “burn” their papers to avoid deportation once in Europe. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork, this article outlines the complex and ambiguous attitudes toward the legal mobility regime of those it aims to exclude: compliance, deception, delegitimization, and defiance. It contributes to debates about human experiences of borders and inequality in mobility regimes. It helps deepen knowledge on why restrictive migration and mobility policies fail and are often counterproductive, encouraging the undocumented migration they were meant to deter.

Contributor Notes

FARIDA SOUIAH works as a LabexMed postdoctoral researcher on the individual research project “Visa Required: Algerians Facing Mobility Constraints” at the CNRS laboratory LAMES (Laboratoire Méditerranéean de Sociologie) at Aix-Marseille University. Before joining LAMES, Farida was a postdoctoral researcher on the project “Undocumented Mobility (Tunisia-Switzerland) and Digital-Cultural Resources after the ‘Arab Spring’” at the Institute for Social Sciences of Religions, University of Lausanne. She completed her PhD in political science at Sciences Po Paris. Her research focuses on undocumented migration departing from North Africa, migrant imaginaries, migration policy, and visa policy.

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Migration and Society

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Article Category:
Research Article
Page Count:
13
Keywords:
Algeria; harragas; mobility regime; undocumented migrants; visa policy
Print Publication Date:
01 Jun 2019
Online Publication Date:
01 Jun 2019
Copyright:
© Berghahn Books 2019

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