Border abolitionism. Undoing the zero-sum rights’ game

Martina Tazzioli - Università degli Studi di Bologna
Border abolitionism. Undoing the zero-sum rights’ game

Abstract
This presentation conceptualises border abolitionism and discusses the theoretical, conceptual and political implications of mobilising abolitionism as a method and way of framing a critical analysis of the border regime. It proposes bridging critical migration literature with scholarship on abolitionism, with the twofold goal of foregrounding the confinement continuum – which multiplies degrees of non- citizenship – and retracing the sedimented memory of struggles and solidarity practices. It contends that an abolitionist view on the border regime requires moving beyond an individualistic understanding of the right to mobility, to instead conceive of the latter as part of processes of commoning. For this reason, the presentation suggests, normative-liberal theories about the legitimacy or opportunities of keeping borders leave intact the socio- economic conditions upon which modes of racialised labour subordination and mobility containment are replicated.

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