ABSTRACT
The current moment of globalization is witnessing an extraordinary movement of people, legitimate and illegitimate, across national and international borders. These movements are exposing the porosity of borders, the transnational reality of migrant existence, and the contingent foundations of international law. And this global movement of people has created a panic across borders—a panic which is manifesting itself in the strengthening of border controls, tightening of immigration laws, and casting of the “Other” as a threat to the security of the nation-state. In this essay, I discuss how the issue of cross-border movements is being displaced onto a First World/Third World divide, which has the effect of keeping the “Rest” away from the “West,” and is premised on liberal exclusions and understandings of difference. I also examine how laws encounter with these constitutive “Others,” quite specifically the transnational migrant subject, which disrupts and disturbs the universalist premise of international law.
