Asylum, welfare and civil society: a case study in civil repair

Abstract

This paper examines a civil society challenge to UK government legislation withdrawing welfare support from asylum seekers who do not claim on entry to the country. Drawing on the work of Habermas and Alexander, it considers the role of the courts as a deliberative space and elaborates the scope for civil repair in the case of a group rendered marginal by the law. In so doing, it also suggests how links could be made with the broadened conception of citizenship proposed by Isin and Turner.

Sociology and the Two Faces of Human Rights

“…However, Lockwood also makes an implicit distinction between movements driven from below, and those advanced by a form of civic activism in which members of the privileged strata take on new and otherwise neglected causes, which might include the human rights of those otherwise suffering exclusion or deficit (e.g. Morris 2009a).…”

Citizenship practices and democratic governance: ‘Barcelona en Comú’ as an urban citizenship confluence promoting a new policy agenda

“…This raises the question what it means to be a member of a polity (Bauböck & Guiraudon, 2009;Kivisto and Faist, 2007). At the same time it shows that the quality of citizenship is mediated by cultural differences and by fragmentation of formal incorporation in a polity (Isin & Turner, 2002;Lister, 2007;Morris, 2009;Soysal, 2012). This rich literature takes us beyond of the scope of this article, but confirms the significance of citizenship as a body of rights that not only protects against need but also provides meaning to holders of those rights.…”

Troubling the exclusive privileges of citizenship: mobile solidarities, asylum seekers, and the right to work

“…First, legal channels have been used to challenge particular aspects of the law. These challenges have largely related to access to welfare support for particular groups of asylum seekers who are identified for exclusion (see Morris 2009Morris , 2012 for a detailed discussion on legal challenges to government policy in this area). The second, and the focus of this article, was the launching of a large-scale national campaign in 2008 -'Let Them Work' (LTW) -which sought to expand the right to work to include asylum seekers awaiting a decision on their claim.…”