Towards legal but humane border-crossings : a literary and filmic engagement with visa law and policy

This dissertation titled "Towards Legal but Humane Border-Crossings: A Literary and Filmic Engagement with Visa Law and Policy", explores the ways in which visa law and policy impinge on a fundamental human right expressed in Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: freedom of movement. It explores how such laws have a detrimental impact on human dignity, particularly with regard to vulnerable communities such as the Jewish community during the Second World War and citizens from the Global South in contemporary times. Since the 1930s, visas function as the primary gatekeeper in all forms of migration and travel. However, in contemporary times, these laws are applicable principally to citizens from countries identified as belonging to the Developing World, the Third World, or the Global South. Citizens of these countries need to apply for visas whether they are traveling abroad for a short vacation, for a conference, or for permanent residence. This project uses the evocative, empathetic, and representational capacity of literary and filmic texts from a variety of linguistic and geo-cultural backgrounds such as Germany, France, Italy, Bolivia, South Korea, India, and Sri Lanka to question the ethics of subjecting visa applicants from already oppressed and vulnerable communities to legal processes that further victimize and violate their rights and dignities. The literature and films discussed in this dissertation function as a space within which the legal framework of visas and the processes one has to undergo in applying to visas are critically examined, challenged, and reevaluated. A number of violations and indignities are discussed under three categories: 1. pre-submission indignities 2. consular interactions and intimidations 3. indignities rising from the arbitrary collection of personal data and the bureaucracy of documentation. The close reading of literary and filmic texts is undertaken along with a parallel study of key legal documents and policies on immigration, mobility, dignity, and human rights, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Hannah Arendt's work on "the right to have rights", citizenship, and human rights form the theoretical foundation for the re-interpretation of the visa as the sine-quo-non for facilitating access to human rights and dignity for most citizens from the Global South when outside their country of citizenship. This project de-familiarizes and re-interprets a set of laws that has been taken for granted without critically examining its underlying neo-colonial and racist biases, and provides alternative histories and narratives that challenge hegemonic interpretations of immigration and border crossing through the close-reading of literary and filmic texts. The texts discussed in this dissertation shed light on the inhuman and violent ways in which individuals' rights and dignities are compromised when applying for visas, and highlight the importance of humanizing visa laws to improve the experiencing of border crossings

Keywords: Comparative Literature.
Advisor: Gumbrecht Hans Ulrich
Eshel Amir
Meyler Bernadette 
Palumbo-Liu David