Between power and powerlessness: The role of the law for unauthorized migrants

At the annual conference of the Dutch Association for Criminology, Kox received the award for her in-depth study of the perspective of unauthorized migrants on the law and the impact thereof. In her dissertation, she focused on the legal consciousness of unauthorized migrants: that is, the ways in which they experience, interpret, and act in accordance with the law. In doing so, she places the perspective of migrants at the center of her study, a perspective that remains underrepresented in the academic and public debate on the functioning of the law in the field of immigration.  

Framing the issue as a problem creates (more) problems

Kox explains the motivation behind her research: “The Dutch government, like many other Western countries, has increasingly begun to frame unauthorized residence as a problem. Whereas it previously invited and tolerated migrants, since the 1990s it has increasingly begun to question the arrival and residence of unauthorized migrants. To this end, it often invokes ‘the law,’ for example, to exclude unauthorized migrants from social services, to identify them, to monitor them, and to carry out their (forced) return.” 

This situation led Kox to ask how the law affects unauthorized migrants. The fact that this question remains highly relevant today is underlined by the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, which came into force on the day of the award ceremony. This introduces new, more far-reaching measures that also affect migrants without residence rights. “However, the Netherlands is going further than is required for the implementation of the Pact,” says Kox. She wanted to give these migrants a voice in the academic and societal debate on the law that affects them.

Between power and powerlessness

Through long-term, multi-sited ethnographic research amongst unauthorized migrants, Kox presents an in-depth, empathetic picture of the legal consciousness of unauthorized migrants. The jury praised the research methodology and Kox’s perseverance: “Based on long-term qualitative research – including repeated interviews with a hard-to-reach population, participant observation and interviews following return to the country of origin – the author offers a powerful and nuanced picture of life without residence status. The human suffering of the research population is palpably present, as is the emotional labour required of the author by her research,” said the jury. 

Her thesis demonstrates that, on the one hand, the law is very powerful because it has a far-reaching influence on the daily lives of unauthorized migrants. “It restricts their social and geographical mobility and leads to unsafe and unhealthy living conditions that have a profound impact on their well-being and future. On the other hand, the law is also powerless because it provides only limited incentives for unauthorized migrants to return, and the government is only partially successful in enforcing forced return through the law. This means that unauthorized migrants are able to continue their stay,” said Kox.

Legitimacy over repression

Although her findings run counter to national and European trends in the field of immigration policy, Kox argues that there is another way. “My thesis shows that more can be expected from an approach based on perceived legitimacy rather than repression. However, the implementation of the Pact demonstrates that the Dutch government is continuing along the repressive path it has set out.” 

Although there appears to be little room for this recommendation in the current political climate, Kox remains hopeful about a future in which the law, including in the field of immigration, is both legally valid and morally just. A future in which migrants are given a voice in the academic and societal debate on the law that affects them. To this end, she will continue to seek cooperation: “I notice that, at the operational level, there is a willingness to act on the findings. I have presented my research findings to various implementing organisations, such as the Repatriation and Departure Service, the Ministry’s Migration Policy Directorate, the Immigration and Naturalisation Service and others. They are looking into what they can do with these insights, despite there being little scope for this at the political level.” 

In a unanimous decision, the Jury praised Kox’s research for its originality, its academic and societal relevance, and its innovative application of classical criminological frameworks: “By exploring the differences in perceptions of and attitudes towards the law, this thesis combines a strong moral argument with a strong academic argument for placing the voices of migrants at the centre.”