Negotiating Survival Needs through Ontological In/Visibility: An Exploration of Irregular Migrants’ Lawscapes

Abstract

This article explores how irregular migrants in/visibilise themselves in socio-spatial contexts in Finland. Drawing upon new materialist thinking, specific strategies of in/visibilisation are interpreted herein as fully part of irregular migrants’ lawscapes, that is, of their ontological movements and the material interplays between laws and spaces, allowing bodies to create their own desired spaces of survival. This article is part of a larger research project using ethnographic methods and a new materialist approach to explore irregular migrants’ everyday lives in Finland. It shows how law is embodied by individuals and, thus, materially influences and affects their movements and emotional activities.