Description: Illegalized immigration is a highly iconic topic. The public perception of the current regime for mobility is profoundly shaped by visual and verbal images. As the issue of illegalized immigration is gaining increasing political momentum, the authors feel it is a well-warranted undertaking to analyze the role of images in the creation of illegalization. Their aim is to trace the visual processes that produce these very categories. The authors aim to map out an iconography of illegalized immigration in relation to political, ethical, and aesthetic discourses. They discuss the need to project new images as well as the dangers of giving persons without legal papers an individual face. Illegalization is produced by law, but naturalized through the everyday use of images. The production of law, on the other hand, is also driven by both mental and materialized images. A critical iconology may help us to see these mechanisms.
Review Quotes: While a great deal of work has been produced on illegal immigration, this publication focuses on two important and original dimensions. Imagery of immigrants structures public perceptions and political debates through its symbolic and material dimensions. Secondly, it is important to deconstruct the illegalising visual process generated by sterotypes.--Saffia Elisa Shaukat "Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 1-2 (2012)"