Contesting Citizenship: Irregular Migrants and Strategic Possibilities for Political Belonging

In recent years, irregular migrants have mobilised, marched, occupied buildings, rioted, gone on strike, petitioned, blogged, written manifestos, and generally brought attention to their long-term presence in states where they live with the constant threat of deportation. What do these diverse mobilisations reveal about the dynamics of citizenship in an age of globalisation? This article reflects upon these theoretically neglected sites of growing political activism. It considers the forms of contestation employed by irregular migrants in the US, France, and Australia and how these may imply new modes of political belonging that move beyond a citizen/non-citizen divide. It also considers what strategic possibilities are emerging between irregular migrants' struggles for recognition and citizens' attempts to secure their futures in the context of neoliberal globalisation. To this end, it critically engages with Jennifer Gordon's innovative proposal for Transnational Labour Citizenship-an alternative mode of belonging built upon a burgeoning alliance between irregular migrants and traditional labour movements.