側記｜拉納比爾・薩瑪達系列演講 I 城市、移民、安全
2026-05-19
Event Report I: City, Migrant, Security
活動照片
Report written by Lungani Hlongwa
Introduction
On March 3rd, 2026, Professor Ranabir Samaddar delivered a lecture titled City, Migrant, Security, which was organized by the International Center for Cultural Studies at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University. This lecture was the first in a three-part series, with subsequent lectures focusing on related themes such as Michel Foucault's thinking in Security, Territory, Population, and the laboring subject in refugee economies. Professor Samaddar, who is currently an Emeritus Professor at the Calcutta Research Group, is a prominent voice from the Global South, particularly in the field of migration and forced migration studies.
In this lecture, Samaddar employs the foundational text of Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England, to explore the "condition" of the urban migrant—a term which Engels uses to describe both a situation and an enforced discipline. His analysis is also informed by Michel Foucault’s lecture series Security, Territory, Population, particularly regarding how security apparatuses manage urban populations.
The lecture aims to untangle the complex relationships between the city, the migrant, and security through a series of fifteen provisional theses. This report will thus summarize these theses as discussed by Professor Samaddar and conclude with discussions emerging from the Q&A session.
The 15 Theses on City, Migrant, and Security
1.The lack of trust between migrants and the city upon arrival: When migrants arrive, the city appears “wicked” and overwhelming to them. The city, on the other hand, views these “sojourners” through a lens of suspicion, and their behavior, customs, and presence as something unusual. The specter of crimes, including drugs, smuggling, and gang violence, often becomes conveniently connected to migrants, even if it originated elsewhere. This thesis, therefore, sets the stage for the migrant experience in a city upon their arrival following a perilous journey by land or sea.
2.The condition of waiting amidst accelerated violence: This thesis captures the linkages between time, violence, and the institutional structures with which the urban migrant must contend. Professor Samaddar argues that the migrant exists in a state of constant waiting—whether it be for jobs, housing, or for “storms” of violence to pass. In times of crisis, even institutions like universities, which often project “equal dignity,” reveal themselves as rigid policing and surveillance structures where the “migrant student” is viewed as a violator of institutional integrity. In times like these, the migrant student often gets to experience the full weight of legal and administrative power.
3.The informal street is both a site of conflict and vital economic activity: To the urban migrant, the informal street represents what Professor Samaddar calls “enabling places.” Such streets often become the economic engine for migrants who engage in informal production such as repair and recycling. At the same time, informal streets are also linked to living spaces, which are often semi-legal or illegal. For migrants, these spaces serve as community-making spaces, but often they find themselves targets of the police gaze. The migrant also gets caught in a situation where they have to constantly watch the police.
4.The civil-military continuum characterizing urban security: This thesis argues that the city is not merely a civilian entity. Urban security is linked to what Professor Samaddar calls the “police planet” where the urban security is intricately connected to military-like policing structures. The paradox of security is that protecting a population involves securing territory piece by piece in military fashion, which often leaves illegal immigrants, refused asylum seekers, and the stateless outside the bounds of proper legal protection.
5.The proliferation of borders and challenges of cosmopolitanism: This thesis addresses the proliferation of internal borders and the challenges facing cosmopolitanism. Internal boundary-making exercises and anti-migrant riots show that internal borders remain a major obstacle to the ideal of a cosmopolitan city. These borders both prohibit and often spark human mobility, and urban governance becomes centered on managing the differences congealed by these fragmented geographies.
6.Crime as a point of interrogation for the security question: Professor Samaddar notes that globally, city governments have often created chaos in the name of “abolishing crime.” This is because crime is often treated by urban governance as a problem to be eradicated by the figure of the “ruthless cleaner.” Since migrants are often associated with urban crime, they become the prime target of anti-crime campaigns. However, crime is baked into the logistical grid of the modern fluid economy. In this environment, trust is only found among those sharing a space, while the relationship between the migrant and the police is defined by permanent, mutual distrust and mutual watchfulness.
7.Southern cities as truly global cities: Major metropolises in the Global South, such as Mumbai, Karachi, and Kolkata, are true global cities not so much because of their interconnectedness, but because their histories are tied to global power struggles over labor and resources. They are contentious places formed through decades of labor extraction and colonial zoning practices.
8.The continuous restructuring of the city produces conflicts and differentiated security: This thesis posits that the modern city is not a peaceful hub for citizen energy. Instead, different groups compete for essential needs, including physical space, resources, legal rights, and social justice. This violence often mirrors colonial patterns, which relied on stringent zoning practices. In times of crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, migrants faced double jeopardy, which positioned them to be constantly surveilled while also being placed on the frontline.
9.Urban migrants face infrastructural violence: Precarious workers are often threatened with permanent expulsion from both the urban environment and public memory. This is because the immigrant is seen as an “abnormality,” a subject that should constantly be placed under surveillance and police attention. Thus, for migrants and refugees, life is defined by permanent insecurity, which often manifests in the form of frequent raids, direct violence, and displacement.
10.Pandemics enable the zoning of urban spaces: This thesis focuses on how urban calamities shape urban governance. Health crises like the COVID-19 represent one of the most recent examples of how pandemics shape urban governance. Professor Samaddar argues that such pandemics have strengthened what he calls the “zonal nature” of cities, where migrant quarters are viewed as zones to be contained. During crises, the migrant is often dubbed a “frontline worker” while simultaneously being denied the security of citizenship, resulting in macro security for the city built upon the micro insecurity of human bodies.
11.Migrants live dangerously in the bifurcated city: The city is not a single, harmonious living space. It is split into a “certain place” for citizens with almost guaranteed services and an “uncertain place” for the underground, illegal existence of migrants. It is precisely this uncertainty that characterizes the migrants’ lives as “living dangerously.” Samaddar suggests replacing “security” (a present condition) with “insecurity” (future uncertainty) as the key word for urban inquiry.
12.The urban-rural interdependence: A city cannot prosper in isolation from its hinterland or global linkages. Urban futures are thus inextricably linked to what Samaddar refers to as the “planetary future.” Crucially, the experiences of immigrants also determine the trajectory of humanity’s collective urban future.
13.Practices of solidarity and trust: Despite pervasive anti-migrant sentiment, the lower classes often forge practices of friendship and solidarity. These include, but are not limited to, informal networks of trust, welfare bodies, and educational programs that instill a sense of belonging in the city.
14.Counter-conduct as survival: Survival in insecure environments is driven by three categories: care, protection, and solidarity. These three categories operate through both formal and informal structures to sustain life under precarious conditions. Drawing on Foucault, Samaddar defines counter-conduct as a form of resistance against power structures that suppress visibility.
15.The power of necessary utopias: This thesis discusses how migrants’ risky survival strategies produce what Professor Samaddar calls “necessary utopias” such as the concept of “cities of refuge.” Even when they fail, these ideas remain powerful since they sustain survival practices while also inspiring the urban subaltern.
Commentary by Professor Rafal Smoczynski
Professor Rafal Smoczynski, who served as the discussant for this lecture, provided initial commentary that framed the lecture's themes within the context of late capitalism. He argued that hostile social reactions toward migrants, which often manifest as “moral panics,” are structurally patterned responses to systemic insecurity rather than irrational outbreaks.
Smoczynski highlighted two primary lines of antagonistic social reactions:
He concluded that these “moralized reactions” serve to obscure the true structural failures of capitalism, such as labor market deregulation and the erosion of the welfare state, by shifting individual responsibility onto citizens and blaming mobile, socially exposed populations.
Expanded Q&A Session
The subsequent discussion between the audience and Professor Samaddar explored several nuanced aspects of urban migration:
Migrant agency and the role of memory:
A participant questioned why broad migrant solidarity often fails to manifest. Samaddar responded by explaining that a migrant rarely “behaves like a migrant” in their daily life; instead, they operate as workers, asylum seekers, or parents. He argued that the identity of “the migrant” is often reclaimed through memory later in life. He illustrated this with examples of established professionals who, upon encountering a racist incident, are suddenly forced back into their “migrant self” and the duty of organizing for others.
Digital infrastructure and surveillance:
In response to questions about the “digital landscape,” Samaddar and the moderators discussed how AI-enabled surveillance and digital architecture have become integral to urban governance. This “digitalization” often reinforces the insecurity of marginalized populations through cross-border surveillance and the exploitative nature of the platform (or “gig”) economy.
Assimilation vs. adaptation and cultural blends:
Students inquired about the tension between host societies demanding assimilation and the emergence of new cultural blends. While traditional enclaves like “Chinatowns” exist, the discussion noted that in many Southern cities, newer migrant groups are forming different, less strictly individual communities that lead to unique cultural interactions.
The injustice-based definition of justice:
Samaddar concluded the session by addressing the concept of a “just city.” Drawing on Adorno’s “negative dialectics” and the philosophy of Pascal, he argued that any meaningful definition of justice must begin with a rigorous description of injustice. For a migrant or refugee, justice is not an abstract ideal but a tangible response to specific harms, such as the right to return home or an increase in a meager student allowance.
Temporality and uncertainty:
The final takeaway emphasized that urban time is not homogeneous. While one class of citizens experiences a “certain” future guaranteed by salaries and services, another significant portion of the population lives in a state of uncertainty, where “tomorrow” is unknown. This fundamental insecurity, Samaddar suggested, should be the starting point for any inquiry into the actual security apparatuses of the city.
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