This chapter examines the politics of categorization that defines people who move, as well as the migration containment policies that set and maintain the boundaries of these categories. The paper explains why ‘the problem’ is not migration per se, but rather the way the powerful seek to control and contain the movement of people. […] Indeed, it is one of the most pressing justice issues of our time, and requires the consolidated and coordinated attention of all of us concerned with issues of human rights and social justice. It cannot be ignored.

THE POLITICS OF INDIFFERENCE

In July 2001, a photograph by Javier Bauluz caused controversy in Spain, and around the world. It was even published in the New York Times. The photograph, entitled The Indifference of the West, was of two beachgoers in Tarifa, Spain, sitting under an umbrella, while to their right there lay a dead body. The photograph generated much debate about camera angles, and whether the beachgoers actually were indifferent. […] Who was this dead person? The answers to these questions lie in geography, in economy, in sociology, in the politics of movement and the boundaries of belonging, in migration and citizenship policies. And the answers, as well as the questions themselves, implicate us all.