Migration as redistribution: Claiming access and the politics of presence

Abstract

This article proposes a theory of distributive conditionality in the context of migration; it outlines the modalities under which redistributive effects materialize as a consequence of migration from the Global South to the Global North. Tendayi Achiume (2019) argues that migration contributes to the redistribution of political equality throughout the globe. However, there is a need to better distinguish between accessing territories of the Global North and the redistributive processes migration puts in motion. Migration is a bottom-up strategy of appropriation within the global context of failed post-colonial processes, which are marked by the exclusion and exploitation of Third World citizens. People’s determination to access the territories from which they have been historically and legally excluded enables further claims for participation and inclusion to emerge. It is these that then allow for distributive effects. Within common spaces of appearance and communities of presence that include citizens and non-citizens and that have been established by access of migrants to these territories, negotiations surrounding the varying needs and resources of those present can emerge, depending on how this presence manifests. To substantiate this claim, I outline three such modalities in which distributive effects can be observed: communities of work, urban citizenship, and remittances.