Abstract

This chapter examines the role of expertise and knowledge in relation to the politics and governance of migration. Knowledge has long been central to the complex processes that define who belongs, and on what terms, in a political community. In this chapter we explore how the production of knowledge – the things we think we know, or claim to know, about migration and migrants – is also shaped by such power dynamics. We explore the implications of knowledge production for the politics and governance of migration. The chapter has two framing perspectives. The first is that knowledge is not given, or ‘out in the world’, waiting to be discovered. The second is that transnational governance and politics matters for migrants and migration, and the production of knowledge is an especially important aspect of governing in such contexts. We explore how the production, recognition and deployment of knowledge about migration has implications for how migration – and ‘migrants’ – are governed. Contestations of knowledge and expertise are thus placed at the heart of political contestations around migration.