Panel 16: Undoing the Coloniality of Mobility Regimes, Narratives and Laws (EN)

Chairs:

Aghogho Akpome, University of Zululand

Hanaa Hakiki, European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, Berlin

Colonial Euromodernist mobility frameworks, border regimes, narratives and laws continue to restrain and criminalise the movement of people from the global south out of their home countries into global north countries. At the same time, these frameworks increasingly promote ease of movement for people from global north countries across the world. Our panel seeks to identify and expose the concrete ways in which these (neo)colonial practices are deployed while reflecting on how to counter them for the purpose of creating a new global mobility regime. We will pay close attention to problematic policies, normative frameworks, border technologies, as well as material social, cultural, economic and political practices by asking questions such as: In what specific ways do the implementation and performance of these material practices result inevitably and invariably in assailing, harassing, stymieing and restricting people on the move from the global south?

We also interrogate the possible crucial role played by immaterial influences such as dominant narratives, discourses and stereotypes on policies, legal procedures and rulings that adversely affect black and brown people seeking to move into and within global north spaces: What accounts for, and sustains, such influences and how might they be resisted effectively? What new imaginaries and solidarities are required, and what concrete and feasible strategies may be devised among concerned citizens, CSOs, NGOs, grassroots organisations, academics, public intellectuals, etc, to counter these influences and promote a fairer and more humane mobility framework for the affected people?

Keywords: Coloniality; Mobility; Global South; Narratives; Laws; Policies