“The passport tells a story”? The passport as a biographical device at the Portuguese airport border

Povzetek

This article draws on ethnographic research conducted at an airport in Portugal, where, from June 2021 to April 2022, I observed the daily routines of the inspectors of the     Immigration and Borders Service across various groups, shifts and functions. The aim is to think about the concept of sovereignty, analyzing how the passport functions as a        biographical device both for inspectors and travelers. On one hand, “the passport tells a story”—inspectors examine the nationality, number of stamps, date of issuance, crossed stamps, other visas and, in certain cases, the affiliation to assess whether the traveler presents what they refer to as migratory risk. On the other, it is also perceived as an     autonomy resource wielded by travelers to enhance the credibility of their narrative,   increasing their chances of securing passage across the border. I argue that sovereignty is not a stable attribute of the state, but a relational phenomenon shaped by the interactions between those crossing borders and those enforcing them.