Print Rights with a Thousand Masks: Migrant Vulnerability, Resistance and Human Rights Law

PrintRights, a cooperative of undocumented asylum-seekers in Amsterdam, manufactured facemasks during the Covid-19 pandemic; first distributing them to undocumented migrants residing in the city’s emergency shelter system and then selling them on-line to the wider public. By distributing facemasks with a message, PrintRights performatively inhabited the right to distribute printed works, legally resisting alienage law prohibitions on employment. Engaging the theory of Judith Butler, this article analyzes the relationship between PrintRights’ resistance, vulnerability and human rights discourse... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Dez, Jordan F.
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2022
Verlag/Hrsg.: York University Libraries
Schlagwörter: undocumented migrant / asylum-seeker / vulnerability / resistance / Covid-19 / freedom of speech / human rights / migrant organizing / Jordan Dez is a PhD researcher with the Amsterdam Centre for Migration and Refugee Law at Vrije Universiteit in the Netherlands. The author may be contacted at j.f.dez@vu.nl / orcid:0000-0003-2947-6902
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-29178261
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://refuge.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/refuge/article/view/40920

PrintRights, a cooperative of undocumented asylum-seekers in Amsterdam, manufactured facemasks during the Covid-19 pandemic; first distributing them to undocumented migrants residing in the city’s emergency shelter system and then selling them on-line to the wider public. By distributing facemasks with a message, PrintRights performatively inhabited the right to distribute printed works, legally resisting alienage law prohibitions on employment. Engaging the theory of Judith Butler, this article analyzes the relationship between PrintRights’ resistance, vulnerability and human rights discourse. Drawing on fieldwork conducted with PrintRights, this article shows the potential of human rights discourse to support undocumented migrant resistance. ; PrintRights, une coopérative de demandeurs d’asile sans papiers à Amsterdam, a confectionné des masques pendant la pandémie de Covid-19, les distribuant d’abord aux migrants sans papiers résidant au sein du système d’hébergement d’urgence de la ville, puis les vendant ensuite à un public plus large. En distribuant des masques avec des messages, PrintRights a inscrit son action dans le cadre du droit humain à la liberté d'expression pour résister de manière légale aux interdictions d’emploi de la loi sur les étrangers. Mobilisant la théorie de Judith Butler, cet article analyse la relation entre la résistance, la vulnérabilité et l’engagement stratégique de PrintRights avec le droit relatif aux droits de la personne. S’appuyant sur un travail de terrain effectué auprès de PrintRights, j’explore la manière dont le discours de la vulnérabilité dans le droit relatif aux droits de la personne peut soutenir l’organisation des migrants sans papiers.