Season 3 of the podcast “Law and Migration (Dis)order: Critical Perspectives” consists of eight thematic episodes followed by a reflective conclusion. The result of close collaboration between the GSCMF, the Critical Legal Research Laboratory at the University of Sherbrooke, and the CRIDAQ, the podcast’s main objective is to popularize critical approaches to migration law through a variety of theoretical perspectives, field research, and practices.
S3E8 – Migration justice and power dynamics
December 2, 2025
Host: Andréas Nicodéme Loemba, Master’s candidate, Faculty of Law, University of Sherbrooke
Guest : Pre Dorota Anna Gozdecka, University of Helsinki
S3E8 – Migration justice and power dynamics
This episode is part of the third season of the podcast “Law and Migratory (Dis)order: Critical Perspectives,” which explores the legal, cultural, and political dimensions of contemporary mobility.
During this discussion with Professor Anna Gozdeka, we discussed law as a social product and law as a producer of realities. We also discussed the role of law in representing and legitimizing a certain (dis)order. How does law reflect social perceptions, particularly in the construction of the Other. With our guest, we also looked at what different theoretical perspectives can contribute to a better understanding of the content and effects of law. The contribution of aesthetics to legal analysis was also addressed during the discussion.
To learn more about Anna Gozdecka’s work and the points she raises in this discussion, you can read her book Visual Power, Representation and Migration Law: Framing Migrants, published by Edinburgh University Press. It is available in electronic format on the UdeS Sofia portal.
At the end of the program, Professor Gozdecka recommended the book Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings, edited by Reyna Grande.
S3E7 – Law as a surveillance mechanism
November 18, 2025
Host : Jean-Pierre Ayena, Ph.D. candidate, Faculty of Law, University of Sherbrooke
Guest : Mona Aviat, Ph.D. candidate, Université Libre de Bruxelles
S3E7 – Law as a surveillance mechanism
Episode recorded in French
This episode examines the role of law in the institutionalization of migration surveillance, highlighting the legal, political, and technological rationales that currently structure the European Union’s external borders.
Mona Aviat, a doctoral student in international law at the Université libre de Bruxelles, develops a critical analysis of the growing use of border control technologies and their roots in European colonial legacies. She questions how the law contributes to making these mechanisms legitimate, invisible, and highly effective.
The episode addresses the central role of private companies, the logic of outsourcing sovereignty, and the concrete consequences for the fundamental freedoms and rights of migrants. It also discusses the effects of structural impunity and the deliberate opacity of the system, which make it difficult to challenge legally.
Finally, the discussion opens up possible forms of resistance: counter-discourse, collective mobilization, and critical strategies to re-establish responsibility, transparency, and justice at the heart of migration law.
S3E6 – Theory/practice – dialogues and frictions
Novembre 4, 2025
Host : Jean-Pierre Ayena, Ph.D. candidate, Faculty of Law, University of Sherbrooke
Guest : Mathilde du Jardin, Ph.D. candidate, Université libre de Bruxelles
S3E6 – Theory/practice – dialogues and frictions
Episode recorded in French
In this episode, the Jasons Critique podcast explores the tensions, back–and–forths, and complementarities between critical legal theory and the realities of migration, through the journey of Mathilde du Jardin, a committed lawyer and researcher.
A doctoral student at the l’Université libre de Bruxelles, Mathilde du Jardin works on the criminalization of so-called illegal migration, questioning the legal mechanisms that claim to prevent or punish the “facilitation” of such migration. Using an empirical and critical approach, she shows how the law is being transformed into a tool of repression, blurring the boundaries between protection, assistance, and criminalization.
The episode questions the position of researchers in the face of ambiguous and sometimes violent legal mechanisms. How can analytical distance be reconciled with critical engagement? What role can research play in transforming practices? The discussion also addresses the difficulties encountered by practitioners confronted with systemic exclusion.
Finally, the exchange highlights the importance of reflexivity, fieldwork, and interdisciplinary collaboration in developing a more just and responsible legal system that is responsive to the realities of migrants.
S3E5 – Vulnerability and privileges: assistive logic
Octobrer 21, 2025
Host : Nicodème Loemba, Master’s candidate, Faculty of Law, University of Sherbrooke
Guest : Anna Tagliabue, Ph.D. candidate, Università degli Studi di Palermo et Université de Paris Nanterre
S3E5 – Vulnerability and privileges: assistive logic
Episode recorded in French
This episode is part of the third season of the podcast “Law and Migration (Dis)order: Critical Perspectives,” which explores the legal, cultural, and political dimensions of contemporary mobility.
During this discussion with Anna Tagliabue, we talked about French airports, more specifically about that particular place known as the airport waiting area. Within these spaces, we raised questions about the forms and effects of control exercised by the authorities, particularly on the rights of the individuals concerned. We also took into account methodological issues and the contribution of a critical perspective to understanding these issues. Anne Tagliabue’s dual role as a researcher and volunteer enriches her work and brings the question of the researcher’s subjectivity back into the writing process.
At the end of the program, Anna Tagliabue recommended Enfermé.es nulle part (Locked Up Nowhere), an audio documentary produced by Nausicaa Preiss and Antoine Bougeard.
S3E4 –(Ir)regularization in the age of technology (Part 2)
October 7, 2025
Host: Nicodème Loemba, Master’s candidate, Faculty of Law, University of Sherbrooke
Guest : Pr David Grondin, Université de Montréal
S3E4 – (Ir)regularization in the age of technology (Part 2)
Episode recorded in French
This episode is part of the third season of the podcast “Law and (Dis)order in Migration: Critical Perspectives,” which explores the legal, cultural, and political dimensions of contemporary mobility.
Like the previous episode, it explores the role of technology in the contemporary construction of migratory (ir)regularity, highlighting the tools—both visible and invisible—that contribute to the control, surveillance, and dissuasion of human mobility.
During this discussion with Professor David Grondin, we will address the effect of technology on our conceptions of borders (beyond a line or geographical feature); how the law is mobilized (or not) as a tool for security or criminalization; and finally, whether there are modes of resistance. His fieldwork in El Paso is also discussed during this exchange.
The episode invites us to rethink our perceptions of the issues of security and mobility between Mexico and the United States. As a bonus, David Grondin recommends two books:
Building Walls, Constructing Identities – Legal Discourse and the Creation of National Borders, by Marie-Eve Loiselle.
The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, by Petra Molnar.
S3E4 – (Ir)regularization in the age of technology (Part 1)
September 23, 2025
Host : Elkanah Babatunde, Postdoctoral researcher, Faculty of Law, University of Sherbrooke
Guest : Pr Sergio Prieto Diaz, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur
S3E4 – (Ir)regularization in the age of technology (Part 1)
This episode explores the role of technology in the contemporary construction of migratory (ir)regularity, highlighting the tools—both visible and invisible—that contribute to the control, surveillance, and deterrence of human mobility.
Sergio Prieto Diaz, a transdisciplinary researcher, offers an innovative interpretation of the phenomenon of migration based on the concepts of immobility, vorticity, and border mobility. He demonstrates how technological devices, far from being limited to a logistical role, profoundly shape the living conditions of migrants, who are often reduced to objects of management.
The episode highlights how these technologies are integrated into legal regimes to create new forms of (ir)regularization, while naturalizing logics of exception, sorting, and suspicion.
The discussion also questions the ethical, political, and epistemological implications of these devices: who designs them? Who legitimizes them? Who suffers the consequences? Finally, the episode opens up avenues for reflection on forms of resistance and reappropriation of mobility by migrants.
S3E3 – Inclusion/exclusion: the ambiguous effects of the law
September 9, 2025
Host : Nicodème Loemba, Master’s candidate, Faculty of Law, University of Sherbrooke
Guest : Bastien Charaudeau, Postdoctoral researcher, Yale University
S3E3 – Inclusion/exclusion: the ambiguous effects of the law
Episode recorded in French
This episode is part of the third season of the podcast “Law and Migration (Dis)order: Critical Perspectives,” which explores the legal, cultural, and political dimensions of contemporary mobility.
During this discussion with Bastien Charaudeau, we discussed issues at the intersection of migration and legal methodology. In particular, we looked at the effects that certain legal regimes or categories have on reality, especially with regard to borders. We also discussed the value of experience gained from concrete cases and what it means to use critical approaches in research, based on his fieldwork at the France-Italy border.
The episode invites the researcher to take into account the decisive contribution of the field on certain issues. Without denying the need to take into account the law as it exists, its intersection with the law in its contexts of application challenges some of our certainties.
S3E2 – Building the border: legitimacy and imagination (Part 2)
August 26, 2025
Host : Elkanah Babatunde, Postdoctoral researcher, Faculty of Law, University of Sherbrooke
Guest : Pr Stephen Lee, University of California, Irvine
S3E2 – Building the Border: Legitimacy and Imagination (Part 2)
In this second part of the episode “Building the Border: Legitimacy and Imagination,” the Jasons Critique podcast continues its critical exploration of borders, this time through the eyes of Professor Stephen Lee, a specialist in immigration law and racial issues in the United States.
In conversation with Elkanah Babatunde, the episode addresses the administrative and invisible dimension of the border, focusing on the law as a tool for managing, sorting, and monitoring migrants. It examines how seemingly neutral policies-such as visa regimes, internal controls, and family reunification criteria-concretely shape migratory trajectories.
The discussion also raises the question of the historical and legal justifications for certain practices such as family separation, revealing the logic of suspicion that encodes certain bodies in the US legal system.
Finally, the episode questions the media representations that contribute to the legitimization of these policies, while opening up reflection on the possibilities of narrative resistance and the reinvention of a more just law.
S3E2 -Building the border: legitimacy and imagination (Part 1)
August 12, 2025
Host : Elkanah Babatunde, Postdoctoral researcher, Faculty of Law, University of Sherbrooke
Guests : Pre Usha Natarajan, University of the West Indies
S3E2 – Building the Border: Legitimacy and Imagination (Part 1)
This episode is part of the third season of the podcast “Law and Migration (Dis)order: Critical Perspectives,” which explores the legal, cultural, and political dimensions of contemporary mobility.
Episode 2 offers an in-depth reflection on borders as social, legal, and visual constructs. It questions what gives borders their legitimacy, who draws them, and how they are experienced by migrants.
Through a conversation with Professor Usha Natarajan, a leading figure in the TWAIL (Third World Approaches to International Law) movement, it highlights colonial legacies, North-South inequalities, and environmental narratives that are currently helping to redraw the contours of borders.
It also addresses symbolic violence, law as a tool of exclusion, and the importance of counter-narratives promoted by communities in the Global South.
The episode invites us to rethink the foundations of international migration law by asking a central question: can we imagine a border law that recognizes historical injustices and paves the way for postcolonial and ecological justice?
S3E1 -Introduction to migration law and (dis)order: critical perspectives
May 26, 2025
Host : Noémie Boivin, Postdoctoral researcher, Faculty of Law, University of Sherbrooke
Guests : Pre Hélène Mayrand, Faculty of Law, University of Sherbrooke ; Pre Anne-Marie D’Aoust – Department of Political Science, Université of Québec in Montréal
S3E1 – Introduction to Law and Migration (Dis)Order: Critical Perspectives
Episode recorded in French.
This first episode launches Season 3 of the podcast “Law and Migration (Dis)Order: Critical Perspectives,” consisting of eight thematic episodes followed by a reflective conclusion. It lays the groundwork for the project by reiterating its central objective: to popularize critical approaches to migration law through a diversity of theoretical perspectives, field research, and practices.
The episode places the debate in the global context of contemporary mobility, highlighting persistent prejudices linked to irregular migration and questioning the ambivalent role of law in perpetuating them. It offers a critical reading of the border as a social, legal, and symbolic construct. It introduces central concepts such as security, migratory order, and forced mobility. In dialogue with guest researchers, it highlights the importance of making critical and engaged legal thinking accessible, while questioning personal relationships to law and dominant narratives.
Finally, the episode presents upcoming themes and invites listeners to engage in active and reflective listening, directing them to two resources: an interactive map of passports around the world and the text of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration. (https://www.passportindex.org/ ; https://www.iom.int/fr/pacte-mondial-sur-les-migrations )
