Dr. B. (Barak) Kalir
Associate Professor
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Programme group: Moving Matters: People, Goods, Power and Ideas
Area of expertise: Deportation, Illegalization of migrants, Banality of evil, Detention, State bureaucracy, Civil society, Social movements, Cross-border mobility
Photographer: onbekend
Visiting address
- Nieuwe Achtergracht 166
- Room number: B5.06
Postal address
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Postbus 15509
1001 NA Amsterdam
Contact details
Social media
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Profile
Mobility and border regimes. The inhumane treatment of so-called undocumented or irregular migrants in so-called liberal democratic sates. I recently rounded off an ERC project entitled: “The Social Life of State Deportation Regimes”, where together with a team of researchers he ethnographically documented and analyzed the views, motivations and practices of state bureaucrats and civil-society actors, directly involved in deportation of illegalized migrants in several countries around the world: Ecuador, France, Greece, Israel, the Netherlands, and Romania.
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Research
Research methods
- Ethnographic fieldwork
- Deep hanging out
Research grants & honours
- ERC starting grant
- NWO
Research priority areas (involved in)
- Real emotion
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Publications
- refereed (33)
- academic (16)
- professional (9)
- popular scientific (1)
- conference contributions (6)
- recognitions (7)
- supervised theses (7)
2024
Kalir, B. (2024). White privilege and the involution of deportation research. In A. Radziwinowiczówna (Ed.), Research Methods in Deportation: The Power-Knowledge Approach (pp. 165-177). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035313112.00020 [details]
2023
- Kalir, B. (2023). On the administration of evil: frontline bureaucrats resolving ethical tensions while enforcing oppressive deportation policies. In I. van Liempt, J. Schapendonk, & A. Campos-Delgado (Eds.), Research Handbook on Irregular Migration (pp. 304-314). (Elgar handbooks in migration). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800377509.00037 [details]
- Kalir, B. (2023). Qualifying deportation: How police translation of ‘dangerous foreign criminals’ led to expansive deportation practices in Spain. Security Dialogue, 54(6), 548-567. https://doi.org/10.1177/09670106221118798 [details]
- Vathi, Z., King , R., & Kalir, B. (2023). Editorial Introduction: the Shifting Geopolitics of Return Migration and Reintegration. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 24, 369-385. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-022-00974-x [details]
2022
- Kalir, B. (2022). Departheid: re-politicising the inhumane treatment of illegalised migrants in so-called liberal democratic states. In R. King, & K. Kuschminder (Eds.), Handbook of Return Migration (pp. 84-95). (Elgar Handbooks in Migration). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781839100055.00014 [details]
- Kalir, B. (2022). On the Death of Mame Mbaye: Racialism as the Ultimate Goal in the "Battle against Irregular Immigration". State Crime Journal , 11(1), 70-89. https://doi.org/10.13169/statecrime.11.1.0070 [details]
- Vathi, Z. (Guest ed.), King , R. (Guest ed.), & Kalir, B. (Guest ed.) (2022). The Shifting Geopolitics of Return Migration and Reintegration. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 24(2). https://link.springer.com/collections/hcdgagfebb
2020
- Kalir, B. (2020). Departheid: La gobernanza draconiana de los migrantes ilegalizados en los Estados occidentales. RUNA, 41(1), 89-114. https://doi.org/10.34096/runa.v41i1.8133 [details]
- Kalir, B. (2020). To deport or to 'adopt'? The Israeli dilemma in dealing with children of non-Jewish undocumented migrants. Ethnography, 21(3), 373-393. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/1466138120939593 [details]
2019
- Kalir, B. (2019). Departheid: The Draconian Governance of Illegalized Migrants in Western States. Conflict and Society, 5(1), 19-40. https://doi.org/10.3167/arcs.2019.050102 [details]
- Kalir, B. (2019). On the universal and the particular in studying oppressive mobility regimes. International Journal of Migration and Border Studies, 5(4), 409–416. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJMBS.2019.105814 [details]
- Kalir, B. (2019). Repressive Compassion: Deportation Caseworkers Furnishing an Emotional Comfort Zone in Encounters with Illegalized Migrants. Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 42(1), 68-84. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/plar.12281 [details]
- Kalir, B. (2019). The uncomfortable truth about luck: reflections on getting access to the Spanish state deportation field. Social Anthropology, 27(S1), 84-99. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-8676.12626 [details]
- Kalir, B., Achermann, C., & Rosset, D. (2019). Re-searching access: what do attempts at studying migration control tell us about the state? Social Anthropology, 27(S1), 5-16. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-8676.12675 [details]
- Kalir, B., Achermann, C., & Rosset, D. (Eds.) (2019). Special Issue: Special Issue on Re‐searching Access: What do attempts at studying the management of migration tell us about the state? Social Anthropology, 27(S1), 1-99. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-8676.12679
- Vallbé, J-J., González-Beilfuss, M., & Kalir, B. (2019). Across the Sloping Meadow Floor: An Empirical Analysis of Preremoval Detention of Noncitizens. Law and Society Review, 53(3), 740-763. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12413 [details]
2018
- González Beilfuss, M., Kalir, B., & Vallbé, J-J. (2018). El internamiento de extranjeros: ¿Qué dicen los datos? Análisis de los expedientes de internamiento tramitados en la provincia de Barcelona en el año 2015. Migraciones, 45, 57-88. https://doi.org/10.14422/mig.i45y2018.003 [details]
- Kalir, B. (2018). Afterword: On Transitive Concepts and Local Imaginations - Studying Mobilities from a Translocal Perspective. In M. Stephan-Emmrich, & P. Schröder (Eds.), Mobilities, Boundaries, and Travelling Ideas: Rethinking Translocality Beyond Central Asia and the Caucasus (pp. 349-360). OpenBook Publishers. https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0114 [details]
- Vrăbiescu, I., & Kalir, B. (2018). Care-full failure: how auxiliary assistance to poor Roma migrant women in Spain compounds marginalization. Social Identities, 24(4), 520-532. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504630.2017.1335833 [details]
2017
- Kalir, B. (2017). Between ‘voluntary’ return programs and soft deportation: Sending vulnerable migrants in Spain back ‘home’. In Z. Vathi, & R. King (Eds.), Return Migration and Psychosocial Wellbeing: Discourses, Policy-Making and Outcomes for Migrants and Their Families (pp. 56-71). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315619613-4 [details]
- Kalir, B. (2017). State desertion and 'out-of-procedure' asylum seekers in the Netherlands. Focaal, 77, 63-75. https://doi.org/10.3167/fcl.2017.770106 [details]
- Kalir, B. (2017). The Jewish State of Anxiety: Between Moral Obligation and Fearism in the Treatment of African Asylum Seekers in Israel. In H. Drotbohm, & I. Hasselberg (Eds.), Deportation, Anxiety, Justice : New ethnographic perspectives (pp. 30-48). (Research in Ethnic and Migration Studies). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315407142-5 [details]
2016
- Kalir, B., & Wissink, L. (2016). The deportation continuum: convergences between state agents and NGO workers in the Dutch deportation field. Citizenship Studies, 20(1), 34-49. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2015.1107025 [details]
2015
- Kalir, B. (2015). The Jewish state of anxiety: Between moral obligation and fearism in the treatment of African asylum seekers in Israel. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 41(4), 580-598. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2014.960819 [details]
2014
- Kalir, B. (2014). Moving Subjects, Stagnant Paradigms: Can the ‘Mobilities Paradigm’ Transcend Methodological Nationalism? In N. B. Salazar, & N. Glick Schiller (Eds.), Regimes of Mobility: Imaginaries and Relationalities of Power (pp. 129-146). Routledge. [details]
- Paulle, B., & Kalir, B. (2014). The integration matrix reloaded: from ethnic fixations to established versus outsiders dynamics in the Netherlands. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 40(9), 1354-1374. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2013.847783 [details]
2013
- Kalir, B. (2013). Moving subjects, stagnant paradigms: can the 'mobilities paradigm transcend methodological nationalism? Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 39(2), 311-327. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2013.723260 [details]
2012
- Kalir, B. (2012). Illegality rules: Chinese migrant workers caught up in the illegal but licit operations of labour migration regimes. In B. Kalir, & M. Sur (Eds.), Transnational flows and permissive polities: ethnographies of human mobilities in Asia (pp. 27-54). (IIAS publications series; No. 7). Amsterdam University Press. [details]
- Kalir, B., Sur, M., & van Schendel, W. (2012). Introduction: mobile practices and regimes of permissiveness. In B. Kalir, & M. Sur (Eds.), Transnational flows and permissive polities: ethnographies of human mobilities in Asia (pp. 11-25). (IIAS publications series; No. 7). Amsterdam University Press. [details]
2011
- Kalir, B. (2011). Uncovering the legal cachet of labor migration to Israel. In D. Kyle, & R. Koslowski (Eds.), Global human smuggling: comparative perspectives. - 2nd ed. (pp. 273-304). Johns Hopkins University Press. [details]
2010
- Kalir, B. (2010). Latino migrants in the Jewish state: undocumented lives in Israel. Indiana University Press. [details]
- Kalir, B., & Nyíri, P. (2010). Evaluating academia: between old hierarchy and new orthodoxy. EspacesTemps.net, 2010(12.07). http://www.espacestemps.net/document8318.html [details]
2009
- Kalir, B. (2009). Finding Jesus in the Holy Land and taking Him back home to China: Chinese contemporary migrant workers in Israel converting to evangelical Christianity. Sociology of Religion, 70(2), 130-156. https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srp027 [details]
2023
- Kalir, B. (2023). The Battle for the Middle Ground. Shuddhashar FreeVoice, 36. https://shuddhashar.com/the-battle-for-the-middle-ground/ [details]
2021
- Kalir, B., Lemberg-Pedersen, M., Oomkens, A., Geschke, J., González Beilfuss, M., Vallbé, J.-J., Halpern, O. J., & Barkema, W. (2021). EU exit regimes in practice: case studies from the Netherlands, Spain, Germany and Denmark. (AdMiGov Deliverable; No. 2.2). ADMIGOV. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8217897 [details]
2020
- Besteman, C. (Author), Cabot, H. (Author), & Kalir, B. (Author). (2020). Post-Covid Fantasies: An Introduction. Web publication or website, americanethnologist.org. https://americanethnologist.org/features/pandemic-diaries/post-covid-fantasies/post-covid-fantasies-an-introduction [details]
- Kalir, B. (2020). Writing as Cognition. In C. McGranahan (Ed.), Writing Anthropology: Essays on Craft and Commitment (pp. 263-265). Duke University Press. [details]
- Kalir, B. (Author). (2020). 3D threats to illegalised migrants – desertion, detention, deportation – during pandemic. Web publication or website, Identities. https://www.identitiesjournal.com/the-viral-condition-virtual-symposium/3d-threats-to-illegalised-migrants-desertion-detention-deportation-during-pandemic [details]
- Kalir, B., & Cantat, C. (2020). Fund but disregard: the EU’s relationship to academic research on mobility. Crisis Magazine, 2. https://crisismag.net/2020/05/09/fund-but-disregard-the-eus-relationship-to-academic-research-on-mobility/ [details]
2017
- Kalir, B. (2017). Facing (as) the unexpected access to guarded fields: encounters with the Spanish Guardia Civil at a border crossing in Melilla. Web publication or website, Border Criminologies. https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-criminology/centreborder-criminologies/blog/2017/11/facing-unexpected [details]
- Kalir, B. (Author). (2017). Encounters with the Spanish Guardia Civil at a Border Crossing in Melilla. Web publication or website, nccr→on the move. http://blog.nccr-onthemove.ch/encounters-with-the-spanish-guardia-civil-at-a-border-crossing-in-melilla/ [details]
- Kalir, B. (Author). (2017). Hannah Arendt: Social Life of State Deportation Regimes. Performance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJKNgE5WyJY&list=PL8roVYSOmToVPMIQ1l5g9lVzu8pwmKUl1&index=3&t=101s
- Kalir, B., & van Schendel, W. (2017). Introduction: Nonrecording states between legibility and looking away. Focaal, 77, 1-7. https://doi.org/10.3167/fcl.2017.770101 [details]
2016
- Kalir, B. (Author), & Rozakou, K. (Author). (2016). “Giving Form to Chaos”: The Futility of EU Border Management at Moria Hotspot in Lesvos. Web publication or website, Society+Space . http://societyandspace.org/2016/11/16/giving-form-to-chaos-the-futility-of-eu-border-management-at-moria-hotspot-in-lesvos/ [details]
2015
- Kalir, B. (Author). (2015). Writing as Cognition. Web publication or website http://savageminds.org/2015/12/07/writing-as-cognition/ [details]
2014
- Kalir, B. (2014). African asylum seekers in Israel: between Jewish historic obligation and political Zionist militancy. Dialogue - Politics Society, 8, 53-54. http://issuu.com/kclpolitics/docs/dialogue08/1 [details]
- Kalir, B. (Author). (2014). The deportation conundrum. Web publication or website, Allegra lab: anthropology, law, art & world. http://allegralaboratory.net/the-deportation-conundrum-by-barak-kalir/ [details]
- Kalir, B. (Author). (2014). The deportation mess: a bureaucratic muddling of state fantasies. Web publication or website, Border Criminologies. http://bordercriminologies.law.ox.ac.uk/deportation-fantasies/ [details]
2012
- Kalir, B., & Sur, M. (2012). Transnational flows and permissive polities: ethnographies of human mobilities in Asia. (IIAS publications series; No. 7). Amsterdam University Press. [details]
2022
- Kalir, B., & Dybdahl Jensen, M. (2022). Final Report on the Governance of Exit. (AdMiGov Deliverable; No. 2.6). ADMIGOV. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8217958 [details]
2021
- Kalir, B., Kuschminder, K., Dubow, T., Lemberg-Pedersen, M., & González Beilfuss, M. (2021). The Governance of Exit Regimes and Sustainable Reintegration Post-Exit. (European Policy brief). ADMIGOV. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8217500 [details]
2020
- Oomkens, A., & Kalir, B. (2020). Legal and operational infrastructures of Exit regimes targeting irregular migrants in the European Union. (AdMiGov Deliverable; No. 2.1). ADMIGOV. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8217890 [details]
2019
- Kalir, B. (Author). (2019). Gedwongen terugkeerbeleid is wreed en werkt niet. Web publication or website, Sociale Vraagstukken. https://www.socialevraagstukken.nl/gedwongen-terugkeerbeleid-is-wreed-en-werkt-niet/ [details]
2018
- Kalir, B. (2018). Ter inleiding. In S. Brants, A. van Huis, A. Oomkens, & L. Bakker (Eds.), 'PAO Gave Us Hope': Drie jaar Project Activering Ongedocumenteerden (pp. 7). ASKV/Steunpunt Vluchtelingen. https://www.askv.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Impactonderzoek-PAO-2016-2018.pdf [details]
2013
- Kalir, B. (2013). Illegal but licit: transnational flows and permissive politics in Asia. IIAS Newsletter, 66, 14. http://www.iias.nl/sites/default/files/IIAS_NL66_14.pdf [details]
- Kalir, B. (2013). Illegal but licit: transnational flows and permissive polities in Asia. IIAS Newsletter, 66, 14. http://www.iias.nl/sites/default/files/IIAS_NL66_14.pdf [details]
2010
- Kalir, B. (2010). [Review of: J.B. Liwerant, B.R. Eliezer (2008) Identities in an era of globalization and multiculturalism: Latin America in the Jewish world]. Comparative Sociology, 9, 554-556. https://doi.org/10.1163/156913310X502879 [details]
2008
- Kalir, B. (2008). [Review of: K. Ruggiero (2005) The Jewish diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean: fragments of memory]. Revista Europea de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe, 85, 152-154. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25676344 [details]
2019
- Kalir, B. (Producer). (2019). De harde feiten achter deportatieregimes. Digital or Visual Products, AISSR. https://youtu.be/hGf_dQWgXkk
2017
- Kalir, B. (2017). The State of Fear: reflections on ethnographically studying deportation practices in Spain. Paper presented at Migration, Diversity and the City - 14th IMISCOE Annual Conference, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
- Kalir, B. (2017). “I do my work but I don’t agree with the law”: police agents managing deportation in Madrid, Spain. Paper presented at Annual Meeting of American Anthropological Association (AAA), Washington DC, District of Columbia, United States.
- Vallbé, J.-J., González-Beilfuß, M., & Kalir, B. (2017). Across the Sloping Meadow Floor: An Empirical Analysis of Detention of Deportable Non-Citizens. Paper presented at Law at the Crossroads, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2994123 [details]
2015
- Kalir, B. (2015). The agentive capacity of deportation officers: grounding im/mobilities in the imaginary state (of mind). Paper presented at Grounding Immobilities: Embodiment, ephemera, ecologies, Lisbon, Portugal.
2013
- Kalir, B. (2013). Protecting the Nation from Liars: The Quest for Truth among Agents in the Dutch Agency for Repatriation and Departure Service. Paper presented at Ethnographies of border controls, Stockholm, Sweden.
- Kalir, B. (2013). The credibility game: selecting “authentic” claimers of rights in the Dutch field of irregular migrants. Paper presented at 10th IMISCOE Annual Conference, Malmo.
Prize / grant
- Kalir, B. (2013). ERC starting grant.
Membership / relevant position
- Sezneva, O., Vermeulen, F. F. & Kalir, B. (2011). Co-organizer. Race and Whiteness in Comparative Perspective conference, IMES.
- Kalir, B. (2008). Co-organizer, Conference Illegal but licit. Trivandrum, India, 24-26 January.
Journal editor
- Kalir, B. (member of editorial board) (2020-2024). Migration Politics (Journal).
- Kalir, B. (member of editorial board) (2017-2019). Public Anthropologist (Journal).
Talk / presentation
- Kalir, B. (invited speaker) (7-5-2015). From deportation regimes to a deportation continuum, IMMRC 2015 Lecture Series Regimes of Mobility, Repertoires of Diversity, Leuven.
Others
- Kalir, B. (participant) (2011). Organising an international conference/workshop on "Studying Spaces of Non-Existence", Jakarta (participating in a conference, workshop, ...).
2024
- Kefala, C. (2024). Representation and performativity of whiteness in China: The case of foreign digital entrepreneurs. [Thesis, fully internal, Universiteit van Amsterdam]. [details]
- Downloads
- Thesis (complete) (embargo until 11 September 2025)
- Front matter
- Chapter 1: Introduction
- Chapter 2: I'm not an alien. I'm a digital ethnographer: Doing online research with China's social media
- Chapter 3: End of the China dream? Young western entrepreneurs' trajectories of leaving China during Covid-19
- Chapter 4: Who runs the world? Gender performances and racialized branding among young foreign women digital entrepreneurs in China
- Chapter 5: Beyond Barbie: Representations of whiteness in China's digital advertising (embargo until 11 September 2025)
- Chapter 6: Conclusion
- Bibliography; Summary; Samenvatting
- Downloads
- Kirişçioğlu Taşan, E. (2024). Navigating risks, shaping mobilities: A mixed-method study of migration aspirations among displaced people from Syria and Afghanistan in Turkey. [Thesis, fully internal, Universiteit van Amsterdam]. [details]
- Downloads
- Thesis (complete) (embargo until 04 November 2026)
- Front matter
- Chapter 1: Introduction (embargo until 04 November 2026)
- Chapter 2: Theoretical approach (embargo until 04 November 2026)
- Chapter 3: Method (embargo until 04 November 2026)
- Chapter 4: “At least, at the border, I am killing myself by my own will”: Migration aspirations and risk perceptions among Syrian and Afghan communities
- Chapter 5: Do risk-taking attitudes influence secondary migration aspirations? Evidence from an online survey with Syrian migrants (embargo until 04 November 2026)
- Chapter 6: Migration aspirations in relation to border closures, employment opportunities and risk-taking attitudes: Lessons from an experimental online survey
- Chapter 7: Stuck in a whirlpool? The role of hope and despair in managing risks during Afghan migration journeys
- Chapter 8: Conclusion (embargo until 04 November 2026)
- References
- Appendices (embargo until 04 November 2026)
- English summary; Dutch summary; Acknowledgements
- Downloads
2022
- Witcher, A. L. (2022). Informal volunteering in Greece's discriminatory migrant regime: Practices in inclusivity. [Thesis, externally prepared, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Universitat de Barcelona]. [details]
- Downloads
- Thesis (complete)
- Front matter
- Chapter 1: Introduction
- Chapter 2: Greece’s discriminatory migrant regime: Volunteers, informal street-level bureaucrats, and moral rationalities
- Chapter 3: Ethical quandaries in volunteering
- Chapter 4: Informal citizen volunteering with border crossers in Greece: The informality double-bind and intimate solidarity
- Chapter 5: Hostile hospitality and the criminalization of civil society actors aiding border crossers in Greece
- Chapter 6: The politics of aid: Discursive boundary-making and the war of position in Greece’s humanitarian landscape
- Chapter 7: Conclusion
- Epilogue; Appendix; References; Summary
- Downloads
2021
- Masardi, R. D. (2021). Independent refugee youth in waiting: Social navigations while in transit in Indonesia. [Thesis, externally prepared, Universiteit van Amsterdam]. [details]
- Downloads
- Thesis (complete) (embargo until 24 September 2025)
- Front matter
- Chapter 1: Introduction
- Chapter 2: Transit in Indonesia: An enabling waiting spot (embargo until 24 September 2025)
- Chapter 3: Age, solitary movement, and narratives: Re-examining the stigmas of independent refugee youth (embargo until 24 September 2025)
- Chapter 4: Disbelieving and playing roles: Navigating the refugee management system in Indonesia (embargo until 24 September 2025)
- Chapter 5: Making the ends meet: Navigating refugee economies in Indonesia (embargo until 24 September 2025)
- Chapter 6: Being good to acquaintances, opening the heart to friends: Navigating relationships with Indonesian locals (embargo until 24 September 2025)
- Chapter 7: Keep moving forward: Navigating global youth culture (embargo until 24 September 2025)
- Conclusions
- References
- Summary
- Samenvatting
- Downloads
2020
- Amit, I. (2020). Between the excessive and the effective: The everyday life of the Israeli deportation regime. [Thesis, fully internal, Universiteit van Amsterdam]. [details]
- Laocharoenwong, J. (2020). Re-imagining the refugee camp: Sovereignty and time-space formation along the Thailand-Burma borderland. [Thesis, fully internal, Universiteit van Amsterdam]. [details]
- Sier, W. M. (2020). Everybody educated? Education migrants and rural-urban relations in Hubei Province, China. [Thesis, fully internal, Universiteit van Amsterdam]. [details]
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Ancillary activities
- No ancillary activities
Kalir, B. (2024). White privilege and the involution of deportation research. In A. Radziwinowiczówna (Ed.), Research Methods in Deportation: The Power-Knowledge Approach (pp. 165-177). Edward Elgar Publishing.