The Geopolitics of Migrant Mobility: Tracing State Relations Through Refugee Claims, Boats, and Discourses

This paper highlights how states attempt to control migrant mobilities through refugee claims. We examine the representations and practices of refugees in the refugee claimant process over time and in very different cases with distinct geopolitical influences and inflections in Canada. Our paper is based on case studies of Sri Lankan Tamil migrants in Toronto and refugee claimants from Fujian province, China, that landed in British Columbia in 1999. We analyse the ways that geopolitics influence every phase of the refugee claimant process, from the representations of claimants, to the decisions made about refugee claims, and the tenor of mundane encounters with state authorities. Our findings indicate that the geopolitics of migrant mobilities are produced through everyday state practices as well as by migrant strategies to move and resettle.