Bordering Equipe – Bridging, Bonding And

Research project

Bridging, Bonding and Bordering: Migrant Strategies and State Policies

Project summary

With the sponsorship of the RFIEA, the ANR, and the SSRC, Professors Virginie Guiraudon (CNRS, Political Science) and Rubén Hernández-León (UCLA, Sociology) will organize an international conference and doctoral workshops to assist students to map and draw upon crossdisciplinary and transatlantic research on immigration in Western Europe and the United States. Alongside these events, the research team will work on the nexus between migration and state policies and migrant responses to bordering Over the past two decades, a gap has developed in the field of migration studies between scholars studying border controls and transnational migration flows — the building and bridging of borders. It is time to go one step beyond and study exactly how bordering, rebordering, bridging and bonding interact. For example, what are the national and local policies that affect migrant practices? How have border control policies affected not only migration but also migrants’ social strategies, economic achievements and cultural practices? How do non-state actors and organizations assist migrants in bridging the ‘here’ and ‘there’ despite new forms of border enforcement? How do local social and economic effects if immigration inform government border policies? The goal is to work on a first publication and work towards the development of further venues for research and the elaboration of a larger project proposal.