Exit Rights, Seamless Borders and the New Carceral State

21 Pages Posted: 28 Sep 2021 Last revised: 16 Jan 2024

See all articles by Audrey Macklin

Audrey Macklin

University of Toronto - Faculty of Law

Date Written: September 28, 2021

Abstract

Enlisting states of origin or transit to prevent exit from their own territory has become a tool of extraterritorial migration control for states of the global North. Violeta Moreno-Lax and Mariagiulia Giuffré (2019) dub this trend ‘consensual containment.’ I view it as the harbinger of a loosely networked global migration regime for governing the circulation of people. This article first explores the practical erosion of the right of exit since the demise of communism. Next, I turn to the legitimating function performed by anti-trafficking and anti-smuggling campaigns in reframing breaches of exit rights as an exercise of the cynical practice now dubbed ‘penal humanitarianism’. I conclude by querying whether a paradigm of mobility organized around entry and exit is veering toward obsolescence. Current trends, particularly in relation to securitization of migration, push the logic of migration governance beyond obstructing exit and preventing entry as ends in themselves. I suggest that the logic is increasingly directed more at assuming control over movement as such. Against the contemporary claim of increased global mobility for some and decreased mobility for others, I contend that mobility - understood as the capacity for 'free movement' - is on the decline for everyone, even if actual movement by some is on the increase.

Keywords: migration, exit rights, trafficking, smuggling, refugees, mobility, movement

Suggested Citation

Macklin, Audrey, Exit Rights, Seamless Borders and the New Carceral State (September 28, 2021). International Migration, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3931940 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3931940

Audrey Macklin (Contact Author)

University of Toronto - Faculty of Law ( email )

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