The violence of uncertainty: theorizing everyday immigrant necropolitics across three cases

Abstract This article theorizes everyday forms of uncertainty that immigrant and refugee populations negotiate as a form of violence. We argue that while the state has made immigrants and refugees an explicit target on which to exercise sovereignty through detention and deportation, sovereignty also...

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Main Authors: Breanne Grace, John Doering-White, Benjamin Roth
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SpringerOpen 2025-04-01
Series:Comparative Migration Studies
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-025-00441-3
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author Breanne Grace
John Doering-White
Benjamin Roth
author_facet Breanne Grace
John Doering-White
Benjamin Roth
author_sort Breanne Grace
collection DOAJ
description Abstract This article theorizes everyday forms of uncertainty that immigrant and refugee populations negotiate as a form of violence. We argue that while the state has made immigrants and refugees an explicit target on which to exercise sovereignty through detention and deportation, sovereignty also operates through a necropolitics of uncertainty where immigrants and refugees face inconsistent and spatially diffuse states of exception that target their material, social, and psychological wellbeing. To support this argument, we draw on three case studies that illustrate how avoiding or opting out of social services and health care, or by “self-deporting,” are effects of targeted violence.
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spelling doaj-art-680c6b84ebeb4e298d92837b548df0d82025-08-20T01:47:33ZengSpringerOpenComparative Migration Studies2214-594X2025-04-0113111410.1186/s40878-025-00441-3The violence of uncertainty: theorizing everyday immigrant necropolitics across three casesBreanne Grace0John Doering-White1Benjamin Roth2College of Social Work, University of South CarolinaCollege of Social Work, Department of Anthropology, University of South CarolinaCollege of Social Work, University of South CarolinaAbstract This article theorizes everyday forms of uncertainty that immigrant and refugee populations negotiate as a form of violence. We argue that while the state has made immigrants and refugees an explicit target on which to exercise sovereignty through detention and deportation, sovereignty also operates through a necropolitics of uncertainty where immigrants and refugees face inconsistent and spatially diffuse states of exception that target their material, social, and psychological wellbeing. To support this argument, we draw on three case studies that illustrate how avoiding or opting out of social services and health care, or by “self-deporting,” are effects of targeted violence.https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-025-00441-3
spellingShingle Breanne Grace
John Doering-White
Benjamin Roth
The violence of uncertainty: theorizing everyday immigrant necropolitics across three cases
Comparative Migration Studies
title The violence of uncertainty: theorizing everyday immigrant necropolitics across three cases
title_full The violence of uncertainty: theorizing everyday immigrant necropolitics across three cases
title_fullStr The violence of uncertainty: theorizing everyday immigrant necropolitics across three cases
title_full_unstemmed The violence of uncertainty: theorizing everyday immigrant necropolitics across three cases
title_short The violence of uncertainty: theorizing everyday immigrant necropolitics across three cases
title_sort violence of uncertainty theorizing everyday immigrant necropolitics across three cases
url https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-025-00441-3
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