Manoeuvring in tricky waters: Challenges in being a useful and critical migration scholar.

Abstract

In the last few years, the aim for research to have a societal ‘impact’ has become increasingly central. This can entail ‘emancipatory’ or ‘critical’ research but is often interpreted as being ‘relevant’ and ‘instrumental’ to powerful institutions. This is a development that creates dilemmas for criminologists working in the nexus of crime and immigration. In contemporary Europe, migration is often presented as a problem per se, and research is easily enlisted in political and bureaucratic efforts to reduce the mobility or ability of vulnerable groups of migrants to stay. While this entails ethical dilemmas, the push towards ‘impact’ also creates more epistemological ones as our ability to reflect critically on the current may be hampered by how we are often expected to work closely with funders and other stakeholders. In this chapter I describe and discuss dilemmas of entanglements with the state’s administrative and managerial agendas in my own practice as a migration and crime scholar.