Borderscapes in Law and Development

This book examines the agency of forced migrants whose rights, it argues, are continuously contested, enacted and reclaimed from the margins.

Drawing on a participatory action research study in Kuala Lumpur, which delved into borders and storytelling, this book argues that imaginaries of states and histories of colonialism have shaped both the asylum system and the implementation and enactment of rights. Bringing borderscapes into conversation with law and development, the book challenges state-centric perspectives on rights and demonstrates importance of community-led development. Alongside its scholarly analysis, it uses narratives to showcase the rights struggles experienced and actively resisted by forced migrants. Drawing on magical realism, the book reveals both the conventional ‘map’ of legal norms but also a counter-map, elicited through the lens of borderscapes, that provides alternative ways of imagining law, development, and access to rights beyond neoliberal notions of freedom. Forced migrants, the book demonstrates, themselves offer transformative visions and voices that challenge conventional boundaries and advocate for a more inclusive approach to social justice.

This book will be of interest to scholars and postgraduate students working in the areas of law and development, migration studies socio-legal studies and human rights.