58
Introducing ‘unwanted’ noncitizens
our crime consisted of aiding, transporting and harbouring persons without
valid travel documents. That’s the lift and the coffee. […] I was not aware
of the law, and the idea of asking the family for valid travel documents
never entered my mind. I have never asked anybody for valid travel documents when offering them a lift.
[She and her husband received a 45 Danish Kroner fine, which was paid
by public donations.]
I never knew that decency, generosity, charity – whatever you choose to
call it – was reserved for people with valid travel documents.
(Lisbeth Zornig Andersen, describing her experience
in Granta, 7 December 201668)
An additional dimension of the construction of some noncitizens as ‘unwanted’,
expelled by a State built upon liberal democratic principles is the implication that
this has for the free-association of citizens, and their decisions about how to live
their lives. In the Danish example above, the construction of individuals out of a
recognised relationship with the Danish State was challenged by the relationship
(albeit brief ) that was developed between Lisbeth Zornig Andersen, who related
with Denmark as a citizen, and the six individuals to whom she gave a lift.
Andersen and her husband were punished for an activity that was made criminal by
the way in which the individual-State relationships were constructed and the nonrecognition of noncitizenship. This impacted upon both the autonomy of all the
individuals involved and their capabilities to act in a way that they consider to be
moral.
As such, limits placed upon, and vulnerabilities of, ‘unwanted’ noncitizens
also constrain citizenship. Beyond the extreme example given here, controls
on who is able to enter through regular channels, who can enter labour
markets and access social and other communities, limits citizens in who they
can marry, befriend, work for, buy from, employ, or, indeed, give a lift to. In
turn, this risks activating noncitizen relationships in the formal citizens who
are affected. Citizens then also participate in the disobedience and politicisation associated with noncitizenship. Perhaps the most famous example of
State checks on private citizen support of irregular immigrants is the tellingly
named French ‘delit de solidarité’ (crime of solidarity), whereby helping an
irregular immigrant (including providing shelter) has been prohibited in
France, with a potential prison sentence and fine.69 Yet though the French
example is particularly well known, as the testimony of Zornig Andersen
demonstrates, cases can increasingly be found across States ostensibly built
68 Lisbeth Zornig Andersen (2016) ‘When Denmark Criminalised Kindness’, Granta, 7 December
2016.
69 See www.gisti.org/spip.php?article1791 (accessed 27 January 2011).
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