Solidarity as Legal Mobilization

Abstract

The criminalization of humanitarianism has become prevalent in the Global North.1 Overbroad definitions of the crimes of migrant smuggling and the facilitation of irregular migration are commonplace in Europe and the United States,2 despite their well-known perverse effects on the rights of organizers and civil society at large. The “crimmigration”3 paradigm is so pervasive that there is little debate across the political spectrum on the legitimacy of a criminal law response to solidarity-based engagements with non-citizens,4 especially those in an irregular situation. Countries of destination have normalized hostility vis-à-vis (irregular) migrants and their allies and firmly entrenched it in the legal regime. By contrast, this essay aims to illustrate how law can paradoxically also serve as a medium to articulate solidaristic action following an egalitarian conception and mobilization of legal norms. Challenging state-centric visions, such forms of action transform law into a space of coming together across power divisions, jointly organizing, and collectively countering injustice.