Differentiation, Affected Temporalities and the Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion of the Border Regime

This article addresses the question of how differentiation functions as a fundamental criterion for the global border regime. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork in Finland and Mexico, we show how differentiation is instrumentalized by states and enables a complicated process of inclusion and exclusion that in some cases continues even after migration ends. We argue that differentiation is a precondition of the border regime, influencing the entire temporal experience of migration and its consequences and creating a persistent hierarchization of different social groups. As such, it sustains a variety of practices of border control and has a direct impact on the experiences and temporalities in the context of human mobility. In the analysis, attention is paid to how criteria such as racialization and country of origin are enforced and impact temporalities. In the case of our participants, differentiation relates to personal and social uncertainty at different stages and a contradictory sense of belonging.