Disrupting Agamben: Beyond undocumented children as “Homo Sacer”

Abstract

Migrant and refugee studies have received much attention grounded in Agamben’s state of exception and homo sacer theory. Much scholarship draws from Agamben’s work and the relationship between the sovereign state and biopolitical subjects in a permanent state of exception. Absent from Agamben’s homo sacer theoretical argument is a discussion on the political influence of undocumented youth. Now more than ever, unaccompanied children have an innocuous ability to transform and influence bidirectional immigration policy. The present research contributes to the literature by repositioning unaccompanied children away from the presupposition of bare life and the state of exception to an active role in the political sphere. This analysis maintains that in the United States, undocumented youth act as nonstate geopolitical actors who influence federal policy and are not necessarily in a complete state of exception or homo sacer an area not fully considered by Agamben.