Asylum and the Expansion of Deportation in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Deportation has traditionally been seen as a secondary instrument of migration control, one used by liberal democratic states relatively infrequently and with some trepidation. This secondary status has been assured by the fact that deportation is both a complicated and a controversial power. It is complicated because tracking individuals down and returning them home are time‐consuming and resource‐intense activities; it is controversial because deportation is a cruel power, one that sometimes seems incompatible with respect for human rights. In the light of these constraints, how can one explain the fact that since 2000 the United Kingdom has radically increased the number of failed asylum seekers deported from its territory? I argue in the article that this increase has been achieved through a conscious and careful process of policy innovation that has enabled state officials to engage in large‐scale expulsions without directly violating liberal norms.

What happens post-deportation? The experience of deported Afghans

“…There is also a growing body of literature on the place of deportation in the state's anti-migration arsenal (Ellerman 2008(Ellerman , 2009Schuster 2005) and increasingly on the theoretical implications of the 'normalization' of deportation (Bloch and Schuster 2005) or what Gibney (2008) has referred to as the 'deportation turn' (see also De Genova and Peutz 2010). With Zilberg (2011: 4), we note that much of the theorizing on deportation configures it as a means of rendering undesirable people immobile.…”

Enduring Uncertainty

“…Where people may in general and abstract terms want stricter immigration control, when faced directly (through a neighbour or colleague) with the harsh reality of deportation, they may seek to prevent particular migrants from being deported. It is in this sense that Gibney (2008) argues that deportation invites contestation.…”

“…As long as the Conservatives were in power there was no interest, for either the ruling party or the opposition, to make an issue out of the Home Office's inability to process and manage the rising numbers of foreign nationals seeking asylum in the country. When New Labour won the election in 1997, the issue was immediately placed on the public and political agenda by the Conservatives, then finding themselves in opposition (Gibney 2008). Detention and deportation came to be seen as the answer to managing such anxieties.…”

“…In the UK, the 'deportation turn' (Gibney 2008) was brought about by a change of government and increasing public concern over rising numbers of asylum seekers. As long as the Conservatives were in power there was no interest, for either the ruling party or the opposition, to make an issue out of the Home Office's inability to process and manage the rising numbers of foreign nationals seeking asylum in the country.…”

Policies of Exclusion and Practices of Inclusion: How Municipal Governments Negotiate Asylum Policies in the Netherlands

“…Often alternative ideas about belonging and citizenship are being articulated at the local, city level, for example around the sans-papiers movement in France (ISIN, 2005;MCNEVIN, 2011;NICHOLLS, 2011). In the academic literature, there has recently been more attention on local social and political protests around asylum policies and deportations (ALINK, 2006;GIBNEY, 2008;TAZREITER, 2010;VERSTEEGT and MAUSSEN, 2012). In this article, we want to contribute to this emerging literature by looking at the political dimension of interactions between national and municipal policy actors (governments and politicians as well as officials, bureaucrats and professionals).…”