The Labor of Chartering a Deportation Journey

The article explores the work routines of preparing for deportations, alongside the work-life situation of employees who handle the task of deporting people. Via an ethnographic account from Swedish detention centers, where immigrants’ forced removal by way of chartered journeys is prepared for, the...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Aina Backman
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Helsinki University Press 2023-12-01
Series:Nordic Journal of Migration Research
Subjects:
Online Access:https://account.journal-njmr.org/index.php/uh-j-njmr/article/view/591
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author Aina Backman
author_facet Aina Backman
author_sort Aina Backman
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description The article explores the work routines of preparing for deportations, alongside the work-life situation of employees who handle the task of deporting people. Via an ethnographic account from Swedish detention centers, where immigrants’ forced removal by way of chartered journeys is prepared for, the article elucidates how ‘affective labor’ goes into deportation. Through a close examination of the work dynamics among employees, discussed via the ‘game’ concept, the article reveals what is significant for realizing deportations and how this occurs in the interplay both of staff members and between those personnel and deportees. Thereby, it offers profound insight as to how employees cope with the task of detaining people and deporting them. The author concludes that the deportation work, in addition to being conditioned by legal frameworks, is characterized by work-life challenges tying in with general tendencies that have global counterparts. A significant contribution to deportation scholarship is visible in further knowledge of the affective labor that deportation entails, coupled with the argument that it constitutes a key dimension of Sweden’s deportation regime.
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spelling doaj.art-6716afe0c8bc4c7ba9d92cc98a8c5e292024-01-17T08:11:13ZengHelsinki University PressNordic Journal of Migration Research1799-649X2023-12-011345510.33134/njmr.591538The Labor of Chartering a Deportation JourneyAina Backman0https://orcid.org/0009-0001-5141-4882Department of Social Anthropology, Norwegian University of Science and TecnologyThe article explores the work routines of preparing for deportations, alongside the work-life situation of employees who handle the task of deporting people. Via an ethnographic account from Swedish detention centers, where immigrants’ forced removal by way of chartered journeys is prepared for, the article elucidates how ‘affective labor’ goes into deportation. Through a close examination of the work dynamics among employees, discussed via the ‘game’ concept, the article reveals what is significant for realizing deportations and how this occurs in the interplay both of staff members and between those personnel and deportees. Thereby, it offers profound insight as to how employees cope with the task of detaining people and deporting them. The author concludes that the deportation work, in addition to being conditioned by legal frameworks, is characterized by work-life challenges tying in with general tendencies that have global counterparts. A significant contribution to deportation scholarship is visible in further knowledge of the affective labor that deportation entails, coupled with the argument that it constitutes a key dimension of Sweden’s deportation regime.https://account.journal-njmr.org/index.php/uh-j-njmr/article/view/591detentiondeportationswedenwork lifeaffective laborplay
spellingShingle Aina Backman
The Labor of Chartering a Deportation Journey
Nordic Journal of Migration Research
detention
deportation
sweden
work life
affective labor
play
title The Labor of Chartering a Deportation Journey
title_full The Labor of Chartering a Deportation Journey
title_fullStr The Labor of Chartering a Deportation Journey
title_full_unstemmed The Labor of Chartering a Deportation Journey
title_short The Labor of Chartering a Deportation Journey
title_sort labor of chartering a deportation journey
topic detention
deportation
sweden
work life
affective labor
play
url https://account.journal-njmr.org/index.php/uh-j-njmr/article/view/591
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