Objectification and abjectification of migrants : reflections to help guide psychosocial workers

This is a personal reflection concerning the migration crisis in Europe and its political repercussions on migration policies around the globe. Instead of the usual focus on analyses of needs, this article examines a variety of philosophical categories, such as objectification, abjectification as well as political paradigms, including the risk management approach to governance. It further examines how philosophical categories can be used to read situations in a manner that can be useful to guide psychosocial practitioners, and that can be both intrinsically and necessarily interlinked with migration policies, in order to avoid compromise and not be complicit in creation of spaces of vulnerability for migrants.