Rebordering Europe from the Margins Since the 1970s: A History of a Layered Arrival Infrastructure for the Mobile Poor in Amsterdam

Abstract

Based on a study of the development of an NGO in Amsterdam helping foreigners in trouble since 1970s, this chapter proposes to view such arrival infrastructures for marginalized mobile people as sites of engagement with bordering processes. The chapter contributes to the discussion on entanglements between mobility and bordering by focusing on the “double dynamic” of interactions between border regimes and precarity. On the one hand, the circumstances of arrivals and the potential scope of the social and spatial mobility of newcomers are shaped by bordering processes. On the other, precarious arrivals of mobile foreigners may indirectly lead to the proliferation of borders. However, it is argued that arrival infrastructures also have a potential, albeit limited, to engage with bordering processes and initiate transnational change.