Father state and its migrant daughters

The article argues that states discipline migrants into the role of ideal migrants along categorical social division lines (gender, race, age, able-bodiness etc), and that they do so because the nomothetic principle of modern, European-origin statehood is patrimonial reproduction which slates people into social roles associated with their contribution to the state’s material, demographic, socio-cultural and socio-economic reproduction. Controlling borders and successfully producing ‘ideal migrants’ are both technologies of reproducing patrimonial sovereignty of the host and sending state, respectively. Migration as population exchange, thus, is a form of mutual recognition of sovereignty akin to the respect that family fathers pay to each other when arranging marriages. The argument is supported by two case studies that focus on the multiple levels of socialization and disciplining of women into the role of ‘ideal migrants’ before and after the actual act of migration.