Administrative control mechanisms in the descent-based family reunification of refugees

Since it establishes differentiated socio-legal eligibility categories among different migrant groups, family reunification constitutes a prime example of the internal border. In my article, I investigate how the border is produced and negotiated in the context of family reunification of refugee children and parents by focusing on discretionary practices of German immigration bureaucracy through the lens of counselling actors in the city. Taking the city of Frankfurt am Main as my research site, I identify ignorance, verification, and temporalization as three administrative control mechanisms over descent-based refugee families. I argue that family reunification constitutes a highly selective and culturalized field of border control, in which refugee families are filtered according to their conformity to a certain family norm and European bureaucratic standards. By examining how counselling actors understand administrative practice, I also discuss how they respond to it, including their own participation in de- and (re-)bordering.