How 'dangerous’ are migrants’ bodies?

Narratives about disease and public health and techniques of governance

Marta, Stojić-Mitrović

Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU

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http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/Article.aspx?ID=0350-08611703593S

2017-2020/03/24/16:08:19

In this text I represent the narratives about migrants which are related to their bodies as potential/plausible carriers of diseases that could be spread to local population. The narratives are considered as special manifestations of the discourse of fear, though which migrants are being construed as a form of corporeal security threat. In particular, through the analysis of narratives about ebola and scabies, the potential to use the fear from disease as symbol and instrument of political power is indicated, when a disease ceases to be medical problem and becomes predominantly a social one. Fear from disease and measures undertaken to annul it are thus integrated into techniques of governance. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177027: Multietnicitet, multikulturalnost, migracije - savremeni procesi]

migrants, discourse of infection, techniques of governance