Abstract

Legal-administrative intermediation is crucial for migrants to access rights and statuses. This paper traces the roots of intermediation across various disciplines and examines its role in migration studies. It draws on scholarship about the migration industry, humanitarianism, legal sociology, and street-level bureaucracy, and synthesises insights from seven articles in this special issue. The paper explores how intermediaries operate at local, national, and transnational levels, becoming essential due to the complexity and discretionary implementation of migration and naturalisation laws. It also investigates how intermediation practises reflect diverse ethics – characterising professional, political, affective, and interpersonal connections – and considers the extent to which these practices arise from (and reproduce) asymmetrical and intersectional power dynamics, shaping the (de)politicisation of migration justice