The experiences of unaccompanied young migrants and refugees challenge the idea of a common European asylum policy but also show that traditional welfare typologies used to account for differences in ...welfare across states fail to account for the lived experiences of this group. They do not consider the shifting categorizations of young migrants in institutional terms, nor how the stratification of their social rights plays out over place and time. Moreover, current welfare typologies give inadequate attention to the increasing intersection of the labour market and opportunities for regularization, the relative importance and role of the state in the welfare mix, and the nexus of access to welfare and immigration enforcement. This article draws on qualitative longitudinal research in England and Italy to argue that rather than experiencing welfare through the lens of Liberal (England) versus Conservative or Mediterranean (Italy) regimes, unaccompanied young migrants and refugees in these countries are better understood as navigating different systems of ‘iron rod welfare’ and ‘colander welfare’. In England, the nexus between welfare and legal status is policed by an iron rod on one side of which exists a plethora of social rights, but on the other the risk of a proactive detention and deportation regime. In Italy, meanwhile, the holes of the colander denote gaps in protection but also possibilities to navigate alternative welfare strategies independently of the state. The ability to act independently of the state is an important but under-theorized capability for this population, for whom the state is a more ambiguous actor than is traditionally considered in European social policy.
This paper sheds light on the ambiguous position of children who migrate without a parent or guardian as they become adults in the European Union (EU). Through a critical analysis of three prevailing ...frames ('best interests', 'durable solutions' and 'belonging'), which largely inform policy and practice related to this group, it explores the tension between policy assumptions and what we know of the lived experiences and aspirations of these young people. It ultimately reveals a policy framework shaped by a state-centric view of migration, a static conception of belonging and a bias towards a political preference for return. Such a stance underestimates young people's agency and willingness to embrace risk in their efforts to secure a viable future. The net result is policy which fails to offer a 'durable solution' or act in the 'best interests' of individual migrant young people or of society as a whole.
Policing Humanitarianism examines the ways in which European Union policies aimed at countering the phenomenon of migrant smuggling affects civil society actors' activities in the provision of ...humanitarian assistance, access to rights for irregular immigrants and asylum seekers. It explores the effects of EU policies, laws and agencies' operations in anti-migrant smuggling actions and their implementation in the following EU Member States: Italy, Greece, Hungary and the UK.The book critically studies policies designed and implemented since 2015, during the so called 'European refugee humanitarian crisis'. Building upon the existing academic literature covering the 'criminalisation of migration ' in the EU, the book examines the wider set of punitive, coercive or control-oriented dynamics affecting Civil Society Actors' work and activities through the lens of the notion of ' policing the mobility society'. This concept seeks to provide a framework of analysis that allows for an examination of a wider set of practices, mechanisms and tools driven by a logic of policing in the context of the EU Schengen border framework: those which affect not only people, who move (qualified as third- country nationals for the purposes of EU law), but also people who mobilise in a rights-claiming capacity on behalf of and with immigrants and asylum- seekers.
•Atmosphere in tribunals is a key factor in access to justice.•Cultural geographies of atmosphere can be usefully applied to practical legal processes.•Ethnography of asylum hearings provides unique ...insight into tribunal dynamics.•Atmospheres of disorientation, distrust and disrespect threaten access to justice in tribunals.
Vulnerable groups’ direct experiences and impressions of British courts and tribunals have often been overlooked by politicians and policy makers (JUSTICE, 2019). This paper takes a geographical, empirical approach to access to justice to respond to these concerns, paying attention to the atmosphere of First Tier Immigration and Asylum Tribunal hearings to explore the qualitative aspects of (in)access to justice during asylum appeals. It draws on 41 interviews with former appellants and 390 observations of hearings in the First tier immigration and asylum tribunal to unpack the lived experiences of tribunal users and to identify three ways in which the atmosphere in tribunals can constitute a barrier to access to justice. First, asylum appellants are frequently profoundly disorientated upon arrival at the tribunal. Second, appellants become distrustful of the courtroom when they cannot see it as independent of the state. Third they often experience the courtroom procedures and the interactions that take place as disrespectful, inhibiting their participation. These insights demonstrate how the concept of ‘atmosphere’ can illuminate legal debates in valuable ways. Additionally we argue that legal policy making must find better ways to take vulnerable litigants’ experiences into account.
Legal geography and materialist studies of the law have not fully reckoned with absence. Drawing on a multi‐sited ethnography of European asylum appeal hearings, this paper illustrates the importance ...of absences for a fully‐fledged materiality of legal events. In so doing, we show that attending to absence offers an indispensable criticality with respect to legal performances.
There is an absence of absence in legal geography and materialist studies of the law. Drawing on a multi‐sited ethnography of European asylum appeal hearings, this paper illustrates the importance of absences for a fully‐fledged materiality of legal events. We show how absent materials impact hearings, that non‐attending participants profoundly influence them, and that even when participants are physically present, they are often simultaneously absent in other, psychological registers. In so doing we demonstrate the importance and productivity of thinking not only about law’s omnipresence but also the absences that shape the way law is experienced and practised. We show that attending to the distribution of absence and presence at legal hearings is a way to critically engage with legal performance.
Young people subject to immigration control frequently draw a link between their own subjective wellbeing and whether or not they have a projected sense of self within a clear future trajectory. ...Building on previous work by the authors, this article explores young people’s lived experiences of constructing futures while subject to immigration control as they transition to ‘adulthood’. More specifically, it examines how young people perceive and respond to time as a tactic of immigration control used in chronological age markers, time-limited legal statuses and bureaucratic process rhythms. It is argued that, in order to sustain a sense of moving forward, young people strive to counter such tactics of immigration control with tactics of their own. The article explores how young people describe working creatively to secure access to a range of often contested rights and entitlements in order to sustain the possibility of futures of their own making in Britain. It concludes by highlighting an overlooked divide between young people’s intentions and aims in securing their futures and the intentions of an immigration control system which arguably underestimates the power of some young people’s agency and determination.
The Limits of Procedural Discretion Gill, Nick; Rotter, Rebecca; Burridge, Andrew ...
Social & legal studies,
02/2018, Volume:
27, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Studies of procedural in-court judicial discretion have highlighted a dilemma between the imperative to reduce it owing to its potential misuse and preserve it owing to its importance in protecting ...vulnerable groups. This article offers a new framework with which to enter this debate and new quantitative empirical evidence that favours the former position over the latter. Drawing upon 240 in-person observations of Britain’s First Tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber), the article demonstrates that judicial discretionary behaviour that is either vulnerability-neutral, vulnerability-amplifying or correlated with extraneous factors outweighs vulnerability-redressing behaviour, despite the sensitivity of this particular jurisdiction and the guidelines that consequently exist for judges. These findings lend support to calls to limit judicial procedural discretion. The article concludes by offering some cost-effective suggestions about how to do so.
Civil society organizations and individual volunteers were in many instances the first responders to the so-called ‘European humanitarian refugee crisis’. From 2015 onwards, they were celebrated by ...some as heroes. Meanwhile, during this same period, national and EU law enforcement agencies served to relabel civil society actors across a range of contexts as potential ‘migrant smugglers’–direct facilitators of conduits of irregular migrant flows, or a pull-factor by default through their services. The shift in rhetoric was met with a shift in policing practices: in Italy and Greece, among other EU member states, humanitarian acts were reframed from life-saving obligations to be met and commended, to administrative–and in some cases—criminal risks to be monitored, deterred and punished. This article builds on previous research to consider how since 2018, civil society actors in Italy and Greece have faced increasing demands and pressures for registration, coordination and financial transparency, and how these have profound repercussions on humanitarian and human rights work with, for and by refugees and other migrants. The article outlines four main opportunity costs of the policing of humanitarian actors as a strategy to prevent mobility of refugees and other migrants. Firstly, such measures pose a threat to civil society’s independence and impartiality from government interference; in doing so, they impact the efficiency of operations and disincentivize certain humanitarian actors from conducting life-saving work. Secondly, they have repercussions on trust between the law enforcement and civil society which may lessen the chances of migrants and those that serve them from sharing crucial information to stop and investigate ongoing violent crimes. Thirdly, this strategy leads to the politicization of the criminal justice system which undermines public faith in liberal democracy. Finally, resources channelled into investigating civil society actors funnel away resources from the focus on high-profile criminality. Given the pervasive human rights abuses committed against irregular migrants and asylum seekers, we argue that this misdirected policy equates to picking ‘low-hanging fruit’ while the orchard burns.
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