ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses in how far the autonomy of migration offers a viable approach for studying how migrants appropriate mobility within biometric border regimes. The first section introduces the autonomy of migration approach (AoM) before explaining how its analytical prioritisation of migrants’ practices allows a control-biased analysis to be avoided. The second and third sections evaluate the validity of the two central criticisms against the AoM. It is argued that biometric border controls alter the encounters and power relations between migrants and authorities to such an extent that it becomes necessary to rethink some of the AoM’s core features, including the notion of autonomy itself.
