EXTIRPAR Y EXPULSAR: SOBRE LA GESTIÓN PENAL DE LOS INMIGRANTES POSTCOLONIALES EN LA UNIÓN EUROPEA

Abstract

This paper extends the theoretical model of the linkage between ethnoracial division and the penal state in the United States elaborated by the author elsewhere to cover the stupendous surge in the incarceration of postcolonial migrants in the European Union over the past two decades, that is, in the era of triumphant neoliberalism. The building of “fortress Europe” in the age of labor flexibility and generalized social insecurity has accelerated a twofold movement of ostracization of immigrants”. The first proceeds through external removal via expulsion of irregular migrants. The second operates through internal extirpation via expanded incarceration. These two processes are directly aimed at those populations embodying the social and symbolic exterior of the emergent postnational Europe, namely postcolonial migrants and their immediate descendants.