From embracement to attachment: Registering people on the move and the couplings of noncitizenship and territory

This article analyzes how people on the move encounter registration infrastructures on their journey to Europe. Through the lens of three empirical cases—registration in the Eurodac system, registration in the framework of the European temporary protection directive, and national registration of migrants on Hellenic islands—we explore what we term “noncitizenship-territory couplings.†The article develops the concept of “registration as attachment†to describe how sociotechnical procedures establish relationships between noncitizen subjects, mobility rights, and territorial space. We therefore ask how registration infrastructures couple territory and noncitizenship in Europe in different ways—that is, how such couplings shape the movement of people, enact territories, and endow spatial rights or restrictions. We argue that new and partial couplings of noncitizenship and territory are produced—the “containment coupling,†the “facilitation coupling,†and the “detainment coupling.†Each follows specific registration dynamics, enacts different territorial patterns, and simultaneously shapes migrant mobility and their rights. By situating the article at the intersection of science and technology studies, human geography, and citizenship studies, we wish to contribute to the growing literature on the performative effects of infrastructures in border and migration governance. At the same time, our intervention encourages further analysis of the varied spatialities of states and sovereign power that move beyond current discussions about denationalization and deterritorialization.