Co-optation, resistance, and subversion: migrant support organisations under welfare pluralism

Over the last few decades, successive governments have increasingly outsourced welfare state service provision to the third sector. This shift took on new significance under the ‘Big Society’, as the third sector is now expected to provide services without financial support from the state.   This ‘welfare pluralism’ has generated a great deal of controversy. On …

Migration to the Margin

Queens University Belfast, 25-26th April. Discussion here focused on the regionality of migration, attempting to shift the focus from London- or (Southern) Anglo-centric research to explore the differences in migration experience at the margins (geographical, social and economic) of ‘British’ society. This approach was contextualised in a multidisciplinary manner, with contributions from Sweetinburgh and Tyson …

Migration narratives in the post-Brexit environment: conference thoughts.

The Ella Baker School of Transformative Organising organised this event on the 16th February 2019 to discuss the key trends and themes in migration debates in the post-Brexit environment. Speakers included representatives from Unite the Union and the Institute of Race Relations. Here is a link to a summarising video produced by the Ella Baker …

Realising EU migrants’ access to a social minimum at street-level: Opening the black box of implementation

Who belongs to the European 'We' is not decided by our parents' place of birth but by our imagination of the present. (Navid Kermani) This research draws attention to the politics of belonging: onto why and for whom formal rights might not map onto substantive benefit take-up. Its relevance is underscored by the heated, emotional public …

The role of citizens in the politics of insecurity: Malta and Sub-Saharan migrants

Based on a critical security studies perspective, this post analyses the impact of Maltese detention policies beyond the walls of the closed reception centres. Critical security scholars have initiated a constructivist view on (in)security in developing the concept of securitisation which refers to the social construction of a threat. While critical security studies has mainly …

Producing (in)securities in the EU? Questions about the legitimacy of new biometric policies applied to border control

Last July, an encounter in the form of a seminar titled “Governing (in)securities” was held in the city of York (UK). Organized by the Europe, Migration and the New Politics of (In)security Research Network[1], it brought together academics and researchers from Europe who specialize in migration in its many intersections with human rights, international relations …

(Re)producing Insecurities at University of Sheffield Fast Approaching!

Registration is now open for (Re)producing Insecurities, 29 Sept: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/reproducing-insecurities-tickets-37161214192

The threat of migration policies to liberal democracies

Liberal democracies are being threatened, not by migrants but by the migration policies and practices that manage them. Calais’s Prefect “categorically refuted” claims made by Human Rights Watch in a recent report denouncing the systematic use of pepper spray against migrants, including sleeping children. In the same vein, Gérard Collomb, the French Ministry of Interior, …

Anxiety and insecurity: requiring asylum seekers to report to the Home Office

This post by Andrew Burridge has developed through having previously volunteered with a signing support group in Bristol, and forms part of their wider research in to the use of reporting in the UK asylum process. A more detailed version will appear in the forthcoming book For a Borderless World (edited by Reece Jones and …

The Borders of Nord-Pas-de-Calais: Camps, Actors and Insecurity

In this blog post I explore the securitization of the immigration process developed between France and the UK as units of the EU regional security complex. My main intention was to not only identify how both countries securitized immigration together, but also to identify the social consequences its produces for the city of Calais. The …