Micropolitics of Time: Asylum Regimes, Temporalities and Everyday Forms of Power

This chapter offers a nuanced analysis of the micropolitics of time in the context of asylum by analysing the ways in which different temporalities are produced, articulated and negotiated in the every day. Drawing from empirical work with individuals in contact with asylum regimes in London, Berlin and Calais, the chapter expands the prevalent scholarly attention on how states slow and speed up migrants’ lives to offer a wide-ranging analysis of different temporal forms of power. It introduces the notion of affective rhythms to draw attention to the affectivity of asylum regime encounters and how they are arranged in time. The chapter takes a novel approach in (1) relating the micropolitics of time to the affective dimension of bordering and (2) the use of the concept of asylum timescape to map and integrate multiple temporal practices and experiences used to articulate and negotiate state power. Furthermore, the chapter highlights the political agencies of migrants who negotiate temporal regimes in their everyday lives by subverting, counter-temporalising and resisting temporal borders. Overall, the chapter shows the importance of developing an understanding of temporal forms of power beyond linear everyday temporal experiences and practices to highlight the complexities and ambiguities of asylum practices, experiences and subjectivities.