Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Forschung

The research group "Internalizing Borders" is working on systematically exploring the social and normative implications of violent bordering and its consequences for societies at large at ZiF since October 2023.

Volker Heins, co-convenor of the group, has just published an article in the journal "Society", proposing a conceptual framework of how to study border internalization.

"The idea of border internalization originates from the observation that sovereign state borders, especially if they normalize the use of force against (ill-defined) “irregular” migrants, have widespread consequences not only for outsiders who want to get in, but also for the internal organization of the society that is responsible for building and governing those borders. In the field of the sociology of migration, internalization research focuses on the domestic implications of any politics aimed at making border regimes sustainable, widely accepted and even welcomed among the population 'protected' by those borders. Here is a broad working definition: Border internalization is the bundle of policies, practices, institutions, and infrastructures through which the sovereign state as well as its non-state and supranational allies, in constant interplay with critics and opponents, attempt to produce and maintain inside a bordered territory the necessary affective, social and politico-legal conditions for border and migration regimes."

You can read the open access article here.