Administrating Illegality. Migration and Rights of Residence in the Context of Illegality in Germany from 1815 to 1989/90

• Applicant: Dr. Michael Schubert
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2014 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 247819356

The research project seeks to describe and explain the causes, consequences and the nature of illegal migration in Germany from 1815 to 1989/90. The aim of the project is to systematically analyse migratory illegality and rights of residence over a period of time spanning several differing epochs. In doing this, the project will consider illegality to be both a constantly changing product of and a challenge to a) perceptions of migration and b) the influence which the perceptions themselves have on processes of migration and the residential situation of illegal migrants. Whilst on the one hand migration follows its own, in the case of 'subsistence' and 'betterment migration' predominately economic criteria, on the other hand institutional state, supra-state and non-state actors attempt to regulate, channel and control, or at the very least obtain an influence, on its management, regulation and control. These attempts are based on ideological and political principles and are realised by selected state, supra-state und non-state instruments. Regimes of illegal migration are characterised by the interaction between migratory movements and the management of these movements. An examination of the nature of these regimes demonstrates that illegal migration first becomes fully visible against the background of prevailing ideological and political convictions regarding which types of migration were 'permissible' or 'impermissible' and the prevailing conceptualisation of an ordered, settled way of life. In addition, this study will also highlight that illegal migration is in many ways first created by the relevant state, non-state and supra-state entities and by the instruments responsible for the processing of migration, i.e. those which have an influence on the decision to forbid or permit people to migrate. Illegal migratory movements are either tolerated or they are dealt with in a repressive fashion. The long-term analysis of changing patterns of illegal migration in Germany seeks to differentiate between different regimes of illegal migration and to bring the varying natures of the different regimes into focus. In this way a wide spectrum of different regimes of illegal migration - from repressive to more tolerant regimes - will be shown.The research project examines a field of historical migration studies which has as of yet attracted in a theoretical and empirical sense little interest. It is linked to a newly establishing field of research which aims to discover the relationship between statehood and migration. At the same time, it deals with an issue which is sure to be one of the central societal-political topics in future discussions over migration.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants