In her paper on “Invasion, Infection, Invisibility: An Iconology of Illegalized
Immigration”, FRANCESCA FALK contrasts in a paradigmatic way
two photos of boat people: Either immigration is depicted as an invasion,
or an individual refugee is portrayed as a victim, following the tradition of
the Christian Iconography. Yet both discussed pictures share a common
feature: the fear of infection. On the other hand, illegalized immigration
inside Europe is often hidden from the public eye. The deportation camps
are generally located at the geographical and social margins, and pictures
of them hardly ever circulate in the Swiss media. Media consumers thus
seldom come across the nationally approved compulsory measures for which they are clearly politically accountable. To counteract such invisibilities,
in some cities monuments are raised in order to make illegalized
immigrants and the violence produced by their deportation visible.
Furthermore, the European illegalization of immigration very often hurts
people coming from former colonial regions. But also these historical
connections linking the past with the present are very often invisible in
today’s discussion about immigration. Instead, in many anti-migration
campaigns immigration is frequently depicted as a colonial invasion.