Dunkeying to Europe: a story of sensebreaking, precarity and inequalities in the extreme context of irregular migration
Creators: name: Chaudhry, Amna
Publisher: name: The University of Edinburgh
Year: 2024
Subjects: irregular migration
inequality
Pakistani undocumented migrant workers
social category divisions

description: This dissertation explores the ways in which inequalities are created, maintained, and reproduced in extreme contexts. Empirically this thesis focuses on the lived experiences of irregular migrants from Pakistan entering Europe often via perilous land and sea routes. Theoretically, this dissertation draws on literatures on inequality, extreme contexts, sensebreaking, category work and resilience. Through exploring the lived experiences of irregular migrants in extreme contexts (Paper 1), the role of resilience in maintaining inequalities (Paper 2) and the processes by which categories reproduce inequalities (Paper 3), this project theoretically extends extant inequality literature within the realm of extreme contexts. The three papers are organised as follows: Paper 1 uncovers the ways in which individuals process and navigate the extreme context of irregular migration. I study the lived experience of extreme contexts via the lens of sensebreaking and in so doing, unveil the underlying mechanisms that herald the onset of sensebreaking in extreme contexts, namely derealisation and disorientation. Second, I develop a taxonomy of sensebreaking in extreme contexts: breaking the sense of self, breaking the sense of time, and breaking the sense of belonging. This paper lays down the foundations for the lived experiences of extreme adversities and inequalities during irregular migration journeys. Paper 2 explores the downsides of resilience in the context of irregular migration. I found that whilst resilience helps persevere actors during crises; in the context of precarious immigrant work, resilient behaviours can accelerate or exacerbate prevailing crises and inequalities. This paper helped me investigate this paradox of resilience in the extreme context of irregular migration, as I delineated the ways in which migrants experienced and navigated extreme inequalities and adversities in host countries. Paper 3 is a conceptual paper that explores the ways in which inequalities are engendered within social categories and the implications of these intra-category inequities and hierarchies vis-à-vis inter-category inequalities and broader structural inequalities. To that end, this paper not only advances our understanding of category literature, specifically the ways in which intracategory hierarchies transpire, but also provides a theoretical framework to conceptualise the ways in which, for instance, migrant categories become hierarchically arranged. This is important because, as recurringly highlighted in this project, the migrant category is an example of a larger category comprised of several layers of sub-categories such as skilled migrants, economic migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, undocumented migrants, and expatriates. While these groups share some criteria for membership within the larger category of migrants, distinctions between these sub-categories are rooted in predominantly racial but also to some extent, gender, and class divisions. By uncovering the mechanisms that drive the creation and stratification of focal and nested categories, this paper also advances our understanding of how inequalities among categories are systematically legitimised and institutionalised.