{"id":11786,"date":"2013-08-19T16:06:44","date_gmt":"2013-08-19T21:06:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/?p=11786"},"modified":"2013-08-19T17:28:48","modified_gmt":"2013-08-19T22:28:48","slug":"mcgowan-missing-binary-signifier-immigrant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/2013\/08\/19\/mcgowan-missing-binary-signifier-immigrant\/","title":{"rendered":"mcgowan missing binary signifier = immigrant"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is no legitimate place for the immigrant within the ruling symbolic structure<\/strong>, and this absence leads to calls for the deportation or elimination of immigrants. In response to the conservative push around the world for tough national policies against illegal immigration, leftists have responded by calling into question the idea of illegality with the slogan, \u2018No One Is Illegal.\u201d Those who take up this position work toward a future world where illegality itself would be eliminated, where the absent binary signifier<\/span> could be fully revealed, even though they remain aware that this future is impossible. The problem with this slogan and the political position informing it is in its failure to grasp precisely how the missing signifier interacts with the signifying structure.<\/p>\n

Because the missing signifier is present as an absence, it exerts a constant pressure<\/span><\/strong>. The more successful leftists are in promulgating the idea that we should not consider any immigrants as illegal, the more strenuously some other group will be located in the position of the missing binary signifier<\/span>. The leftist fight against the idea of illegality, despite the good intentions of those involved, will inevitably backfire. 276-277<\/p>\n

No amount of political effort will eliminate the position of the missing<\/strong> binary signifier<\/span>, nor will it succeed in vacating this signifier of any content.<\/p>\n

There will always be someone in the position of the immigrant,<\/strong> but the question concerns how we relate to this structurally requisite position<\/span>. 277<\/p>\n

The only political solution lies in abandoning the quest for a solution<\/span>.<\/p>\n

It involves identification with this signifier<\/span><\/strong> rather than in the effort to integrate it successfully.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Instead of attempting to conceive of the missing signifier from the perspective of the signifying system<\/strong>, we must conceive of the signifying system from the perspective of the missing signifier<\/span><\/strong>. 277<\/p>\n

By doing so, we would see that the missing signifier, despite appearances, does not concern those who are not properly represented. It concerns the system of signification itself, the law itself. The absence in the law is the founding moment of the law, not an otherness that the law cannot accommodate.<\/p>\n

This means that the struggle against illegal immigration does not concern illegal immigrants outside the legal social structure, even though they are clearly affected by this struggle. It concerns, instead, the status of the upstanding citizen within the social structure.<\/p>\n

By responding on the level of the immigrant \u2013 or by responding to patriarchy on the level of the feminine \u2013 the political battle is already lost. The missing signifier is not an opening to a mysterious otherness;<\/span><\/strong> it is the unacknowledged way that the symbolic structure manifests itself<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Rather than the slogan \u201cNo One Is Illegal,\u201d<\/strong> a politics of identification with the missing binary signifier would involve a slightly different one, something like \u201cNo One Is Legal.\u201d<\/strong> The missing signifier does not hold the key to the future full citizenship of all subjects; instead, it prevents the full citizenship of any subjects.<\/span><\/p>\n

The structure of citizenship itself depends on the absence of the signifier for the illegal immigrant, and, as a result, the legal citizen cannot avoid this absence.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

In order to be effective in the last instance, our political efforts must emphasize the missing signifier as an internal dislocation of the structure of legal citizenship … 277<\/p>\n

Rather than working to include previously excluded subjects within the structure of signification, we must work instead to reveal how those inside are themselves already excluded<\/span><\/strong>: there is no inclusion that does not partake of the fundamental exclusion that defines the structure.<\/span><\/strong> Legal citizens must come to recognize that legality doesn\u2019t exist.<\/strong> Fostering this recognition is the essence of a psychoanalytic politics … 278<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is no legitimate place for the immigrant within the ruling symbolic structure, and this absence leads to calls for the deportation or elimination of immigrants. In response to the conservative push around the world for tough national policies against illegal immigration, leftists have responded by calling into question the idea of illegality with the … Continue reading “mcgowan missing binary signifier = immigrant”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zizek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11786"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11788,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11786\/revisions\/11788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}