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Communication dans un congrès Année : 2023

Putting Relational Power in the Implementation of Migration Policy : the Discretionary decisions of Railway Workers at the French-Italian Border

Résumé

This paper will critically engage with the rich Scholarship on discretionary power of street level bureaucrats (Lipsky 1980, Dubois 2010, Evan & Harris 2004), in particular, within the field of Migration policies’ Implementation studies (Gilboy 1991, Weber 2003, Alpes & Spire 2014, Infantino & Sredanovic 2020, Eule et al. 2020), by highlighting the role of an understudied group of professionals which is directly involved in border-control activities, without representing the State or having an official mandate in Migration issues: the Railway Workers (RW). By focusing on the discretion-in-practice of non-State actors (Darling 2022, Infantino 2017) and on their Relational Power (Mesle 2016) within and outside their own professional organisation (the French railway company/SNCF), I argue that discretionary decision of RW on who and at what conditions can cross the French-Italian border by train plays a key role in shaping the concrete effects of the Border Regime (De Genova 2010). By considering the ongoing organizational reform of the SNCF, and by comparing two different set of practices of these RW and the justifications they put forward, I will show that their discretionary decision-making about border-crossings is a relational one, as it results from the combination of different power-related issues: their perception of the norm/superior principle and their relationship with line management ; their perception of the sanction and their employment (in)stability ; their personal and professional supports (family members, staff representatives) ; the experiences of sensitive encounters with exiles and police officers.
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Dates et versions

halshs-04344609, version 1 (14-12-2023)

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  • HAL Id : halshs-04344609 , version 1

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Annalisa Lendaro. Putting Relational Power in the Implementation of Migration Policy : the Discretionary decisions of Railway Workers at the French-Italian Border. European Consortium for Political Research Meeting, Apr 2023, Toulouse, France. ⟨halshs-04344609⟩
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Dernière date de mise à jour le 28/04/2024
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