What role do lawyers, activists, and migrant support networks play in contesting, deconstructing and/or upholding norms surrounding citizenship, asylum, family migration, deportability and illegalization of migrants? When and how do lawyers and activists contest or conform state norms and policy frames? How can we (re)conceptualize the  contestation and/or confirmation of norms carried out by lawyers- and activists in support to migrants- and their families? Does this work critically challenge state categories of deserving/underserving migrants- or does it (simultaneously) play into a continuum of constructing desirable and deportable populations?   We organised a panel series on this theme at the  the CES conference held in Lisbon in June 2022.   

Panel series conveners: 

Sonja Evaldsson Mellström, Eline Westra and Saskia Bonjour