Intersectionality and the Migrant: Developing a Migrant Standpoint

Standpoint theorizing has been prevalent in sociology for over half a century, and has often been viewed as some type of ‘intellectual resistance’ (Collins 2019). Arguably, Ethnomethodology began this form of analysis, albeit tacitly; but it was made explicit by the early feminists (D.E. Smith, Hartsock) and subsequently revised by scholars such as Collins. This eventually led to Collins' contemporary concern with Intersectionality as critical social theory. Disappointed with the plethora of confusions surrounding the concept, Collins attempts to clarify Intersectionality’s future potential. Acknowledging the conventional foci on race, class and gender, Collins also shares the Foucauldian concern with power and knowledge but brings such issues directly into academia itself. Thus she introduces us to ‘non-privileged academics’, ‘resistant knowledge projects’, and ‘epistemic resistance’. In other words, her theorizing prepares the ground for possible new forms of standpoint sociology: including those of the ‘migrant’.

This Research Topic seeks to re-imagine aspects of intersectional thinking, so as to formulate and display what may be meant by a ‘migrant underdog standpoint' . Although recent research in migration studies has paid attention to the concerns raised by intersectional scholars (Cleton and Scuzzarello 2023), this Topic seeks to display theoretical and empirical research that works towards a reflective and reflexive form of analysis based on the researcher’s own situatedness within relations of knowledge and power that have shaped and continue to shape her/his own geographical, biographical odyssey, and that of their discursive community. Whilst Smith’s ‘institutional ethnography’ had its roots in her shared lived experience of the ‘single mother’ community, and Collins’ ‘intersectionality’ had its roots in the black feminist community, this collection seeks research which has its roots in the researcher’s own pre-migration community. As a result, analysis can pay attention to both the hybridity (Hall) of the migrant ‘self’ which results, and the various structural and discursive constraints encountered in their transnational migratory career to date. Moreover, this may also involve experiencing changing understandings of race, class, gender, when one moves from one society’s system of governance to another. Therefore, familiarity with auto ethnographic analysis and ‘transnational migration’ may well constitute important components for this re-imagining of intersectionality. In sum, the primary goal of this Research Topic is to go beyond the temporal and geographic limitations of earlier forms of intersectional analysis.

We welcome contributions which develop Intersectionality as 'critical social theory', via migrant standpoint contributions. Papers which examine transnational migration at both micro (e.g. issues of hybridity, parrhesia, identity) and macro (eg. issues of autocratization, race struggles, broligarchy) levels are encouraged, as are those which employ ‘critical reflexive methodologies (Nyaga et al 2024), ‘abductive analysis’ (Hill 2019), genealogical analysis (Foucault 2003) and similar methodologies. In addition, papers which help us understand the complexity of migrant communities 'from within' and which also help us understand, from below, the changing environment of neo-liberalism or the current crisis situation in several western societies with their shifts towards authoritarianism, are also encouraged. Furthermore, as migrants often navigate intricate webs of inclusion and exclusion wherein their agency and vulnerability are influenced and exploited, papers which explore these issues within academia itself, are also encouraged.