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Citizenship, deportation and the boundaries of belonging
Taking the growing use of deportation by many states, including the UK and the USA, as its point of departure, this article examines the implications of deportation for how citizenship is understood and conceptualised in liberal states. We follow scholars such as Walters (2002, Citizenship studies, 6 (2), 265–292) and Nicholas De Genova (2010, The deportation regime: sovereignty, space and freedom of movement. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 33–65) in seeing deportation as a practice that is ‘constitutive of citizenship’, one that reaffirms the formal and normative boundaries of membership in an international system of nominally independent states. However, we draw on the UK to show that, as a particularly definitive and symbolically resonant way of dividing citizens from (putative) strangers, deportation is liable to generate conflicts amongst citizens and between citizens and the state over the question of who is part of the normative community of members. Such conflict is, we show, a key and everyday feature of the many local anti-deportation campaigns that currently operate in support of individuals and families facing expulsion in liberal states. Although often used by governmental elites as a way to reaffirm the shared significance of citizenship, deportation, we suggest, may serve to highlight just how divided and confused modern societies are in how they conceptualise both who is a member and who has the right to judge who belongs.
Special Issue: Boundaries of Belonging: Deportation and the Constitution and Contestation of Citizenship
This special issue has its roots in an International Conference on ‘Deportation and the Development of Citizenship’ held at the University of Oxford on 11–12 December 2009. It aimed to examine deportation as a mechanism of both immigration and social control, and to explore the ways in which the rise of deportation reflects and generates changes in conceptions of membership in liberal states. The conference brought together scholars from a range of disciplines, from classics to criminology, as well as activists and policymakers. The levels of engagement and interaction of conference participants indicated that this is a subject that benefits from multiple perspectives and interdisciplinarity.
Introduction: Boundaries of belonging: deportation and the constitution and contestation of citizenship
This special issue has its roots in an International Conference on ‘Deportation and the Development of Citizenship’ held at the University of Oxford on 11–12 December 2009. It aimed to examine deportation as a mechanism of both immigration and social control, and to explore the ways in which the rise of deportation reflects and generates changes in conceptions of membership in liberal states. The conference brought together scholars from a range of disciplines, from classics to criminology, as well as activists and policymakers. The levels of engagement and interaction of conference participants indicated that this is a subject that benefits from multiple perspectives and interdisciplinarity.
‘A very transcendental power’: denaturalisation and the liberalisation of citizenship in the United Kingdom
The right to strip citizenship from (denaturalise) those deemed disloyal or dangerous is a significant but largely unexamined power held by some liberal states. Since 2002, the British government has, in response to concerns about terrorism and value of citizenship, expanded its power to denaturalise certain categories of citizens, including those born in the UK. This development seems odd in the light of academic literature that has described a recent trend in Europe towards the increasing ‘liberalisation’ of citizenship. Writing on the subject of citizenship acquisition, scholars have pointed to a range of changes that curtail the state's ability to withhold citizenship from resident non-citizens. In this article, I draw upon parliamentary debates, archived documents, government reports and secondary literature, to chart the historical development of denaturalisation power in the UK and consider the extent to which it has been shaped by liberal principles. This history indicates that denaturalisation had indeed undergone a process of liberalisation before the Labour government partly reversed its direction after 2002. Yet it also shows that liberal principles, far from simply curtailing the state's powers to strip citizenship, have been deeply implicated in recent and historical attempts to expand denaturalisation power by British governments.
Deportation, crime, and the changing character of membership in the United Kingdom
Book description: The Borders of Punishment: Migration, Citizenship, and Social Exclusion critically assesses the relationship between immigration control, citizenship, and criminal justice. It reflects on the theoretical and methodological challenges posed by mass mobility and its control and for the first time, sets out a particular sub-field within criminology, the criminology of mobility. Drawing together leading international scholars with newer researchers, the book systematically outlines why criminology and criminal justice should pay more attention to issues of immigration and border control.
Refugee camps and cities in conversation
Book description: Rescripting Religion in the City explores the role of faith and religious practices as strategies for understanding and negotiating the migratory experience. Leading international scholars draw on case studies of urban settings in the global north and south. Presenting a nuanced understanding of the religious identities of migrants within the 'modern metropolis' this book makes a significant contribution to fields as diverse as twentieth-century immigration history, the sociology of religion and migration studies, as well as historical and urban geography and practical theology.
Displacement, transitional justice and reconciliation: assumptions, challenges and lessons
This RSC Policy Briefing explores the links between reconciliation, forced migration and transitional justice, bringing into focus the ways in which displaced persons figure in transitional justice processes, and the potential implications of this involvement for reconciliation. The paper addresses the interlinked conceptual and practical challenges associated with trying to advance reconciliation in post-conflict societies affected by large-scale displacement, and highlights some of the ways in which policymakers and practitioners have sought to support reconciliation between displaced populations and other actors. It analyses some of the assumptions that have characterised these efforts, and suggests ways in which the challenges surrounding the interface of displacement, transitional justice and reconciliation may be more effectively navigated.
Stabilising the Congo
This RSC Policy Briefing Paper considers the ‘stabilisation approach’ adopted by both the international community and national government to address the continued insecurity in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Considering stabilisation also offers a way of conceptualising and engaging with the root causes of displacement. Political implications of the stabilisation agenda are brought into sharper relief by focusing on a single question: stabilisation by whom and for whom? Rather than continuing to support the State unconditionally, the brief calls on international actors to strengthen and exercise their combined leverage in critical priority areas that together form a comprehensive ‘road map’ to long-term peace and stability following the elections.
Stabilising the Congo (French)
This RSC Policy Briefing Paper considers the ‘stabilisation approach’ adopted by both the international community and national government to address the continued insecurity in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Considering stabilisation also offers a way of conceptualising and engaging with the root causes of displacement. Political implications of the stabilisation agenda are brought into sharper relief by focusing on a single question: stabilisation by whom and for whom? Rather than continuing to support the State unconditionally, the brief calls on international actors to strengthen and exercise their combined leverage in critical priority areas that together form a comprehensive ‘road map’ to long-term peace and stability following the elections.
Protracted Sahrawi displacement: challenges and opportunities beyond encampment
This RSC Policy Briefing analyses the challenges and opportunities – after 35 years of protracted displacement and encampment – for the Sahrawi refugees, their political representatives and international actors. The paper challenges assumptions and representations of conditions and dynamics in the camps. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh also calls for a careful analysis of the diverse alternative solutions to encampment in Algeria that have been adopted or proposed and of the relevant protection concerns which may arise.
Protracted Sahrawi displacement: challenges and opportunities beyond encampment (Arabic)
This RSC Policy Briefing analyses the challenges and opportunities – after 35 years of protracted displacement and encampment – for the Sahrawi refugees, their political representatives and international actors. The paper challenges assumptions and representations of conditions and dynamics in the camps. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh also calls for a careful analysis of the diverse alternative solutions to encampment in Algeria that have been adopted or proposed and of the relevant protection concerns which may arise.
Protracted Sahrawi displacement: challenges and opportunities beyond encampment (Spanish)
This RSC Policy Briefing analyses the challenges and opportunities – after 35 years of protracted displacement and encampment – for the Sahrawi refugees, their political representatives and international actors. The paper challenges assumptions and representations of conditions and dynamics in the camps. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh also calls for a careful analysis of the diverse alternative solutions to encampment in Algeria that have been adopted or proposed and of the relevant protection concerns which may arise.
They aren't all first cousins: Bedouin marriage and health policies in Lebanon
Fertility and consanguineous marriages among the Bedouin tribes of the Middle East have long generated interest particularly around health outcomes and social relations. In particular, Bedouin in Lebanon have increasingly embraced the Lebanese national bio-medical health system in the past two decades, while Lebanese policy-makers' responses continue to be minimal and ill-informed. This paper investigates the mismatch between policy-makers' formulations of Bedouin consanguineous marriages and the Bedouins's actual reproductive practices and discusses the implications of these formulations on the Bedouins's access to health services.
IFRC World Disasters Report 2012
Migration is a phenomenon that grows every year and affects in some way virtually every country. Many migrants move voluntarily – looking perhaps for economic opportunities, or for different lifestyles. But for others, migration is not a choice. More and more people are forced to flee their homes and communities because of many factors including conflicts, persecution, disasters and poverty. It is their plight that is the focus of the 2012 World Disasters Report.
Regime complexity and international organizations: UNHCR as a challenged institution
The existing literature on regime complexity has generally focused on its impact on the behavior of states; in contrast, this article explores its implications for international organizations. Many organizations within the UN system were established in the aftermath of World War II, at a time when they held a de facto monopoly in a given policy field. Gradually, however, institutional proliferation has created a range of institutional overlaps that may have complementary or competitive relationships to the referent organization of the original regime. Developing the concept of challenged institutions, this article explores how international organizations are affected by and strategically respond to growing institutional competition. Through a case study of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees' response to an increasingly competitive institutional environment, it argues that the concept of challenged institutions highlights the dilemmas faced by multilateral organizations in a rapidly changing landscape of global governance.
Transforming global governance for the twenty-first century
The rise of the global South is transforming global governance. It is creating new demands for multilateral institutions and jumpstarting regionalism. The result is a new range of strategic choices available to developing countries, and a new imperative to reform and reinvigorate multilateral and regional organizations. This paper explores the transformation of governance in four sectors—finance, health, migration and security—and highlights the implications for developing countries. In each area, developing countries have clear and powerful collective interests. There are also challenges for global governance. At one end is the relatively well-institutionalized area of finance, where reforming existing institutions is key. At the other end is migration, where global negotiations are needed, and institutions barely exist.
Guests and hosts: Arab hospitality underpins a humane approach to asylum policy
Movements of people in humanitarian crises in the Middle East have not been well understood in the West. Consider the flight from Iraq in the wake of the 2003 American-led invasion of the country. Iraqis did not leave when many in the West expected them to, and then when they did set out into exile, they refused to enter internationally organized holding camps and chose instead to settle on their own in urban centers. Today, as one of their host countries, Syria, is engulfed by a bloody civil war, the international community is racing to create new holding centers beyond its borders. Yet only a few thousand Iraqis have moved out of Syria, and fewer have returned to Iraq. History and culture help explain this behavior, which to an Orientalist mind is perplexing. To understand it, we should consider the historical context of Iraqi migrations not only in the past decade but also in the past century, through to the late Ottoman period. The Iraqi experience helps provide a better understanding of forced migration, asylum, refuge, and hospitality in this region.
Bedouin in Lebanon: social discrimination, political exclusion, and compromised healthcare
Global inequalities in health have long been associated with disparities between rich and poor nations. The middle-income countries of the Levant (Lebanon, Syria and Jordan) have developed models of health care delivery that mirror the often complex make-up of their states. In Lebanon, which is characterized by political clientelism and sectarian structures, access to health care is more contingent on ethnicity and religious affiliation than on poverty. This case study of the Bedouin of the Middle Bekaa Valley of Lebanon is based on interviews with policymakers, health care providers and the Bedouin as part of a study funded by the European Commission between 2006 and 2010. The study explores the importance of considering social discrimination and political exclusion in understanding compromised health care. Three decades after the Declaration of Alma Ata (1978), which declared that an acceptable level of health care for all should be attained by the year 2000, the Bedouin community of Lebanon remains largely invisible to the government and, thus, invisible to national health care policy and practice. They experience significant social discrimination from health practitioners and policymakers alike. Their unfair treatment under the health system is generally disassociated from issues of wealth or poverty; it is manifested in issues of access and use, discrimination, and resistance and agency. Overcoming their political exclusion and recognizing the social discrimination they face are steps that can be taken to protect and promote equal access to basic reproductive and child health care. This case study of the Bedouin in Lebanon is also relevant to the health needs of other marginalized populations in remote and rural areas.
Special Issue: Conceptual Problems in Forced Migration
Scholars have made rapid progress in establishing the field of Refugee Studies/Forced Migration Studies over the past 30 years. It has emerged from both the moral imperative of ameliorating the suffering of the displaced and from academic interests of scholars considering involuntary migration from the perspectives of sociology, geography, political science and international relations, anthropology, and international law. In spite of this broad interest, or perhaps because of it, key conceptual issues have seldom been addressed, with the result that there is a lack of clarity on matters of fundamental importance. Greater awareness of general theory and greater analytical rigour is required urgently on issues that bear upon forced migration. This special issue is the outcome of a cooperative effort to initiate discussion on some of these problems. In 2011 a special seminar series was organized by the University of Oxford and the University of East London to consider a series of inter-related issues: problems of choice and constraint, forced migrants and the nation-state, and refugees and history.
Conceptual problems in forced migration
Scholars have made rapid progress in establishing the field of Refugee Studies/Forced Migration Studies over the past 30 years. It has emerged from both the moral imperative of ameliorating the suffering of the displaced and from academic interests of scholars considering involuntary migration from the perspectives of sociology, geography, political science and international relations, anthropology, and international law. In spite of this broad interest, or perhaps because of it, key conceptual issues have seldom been addressed, with the result that there is a lack of clarity on matters of fundamental importance. Greater awareness of general theory and greater analytical rigour is required urgently on issues that bear upon forced migration. This special issue is the outcome of a cooperative effort to initiate discussion on some of these problems. In 2011 a special seminar series was organized by the University of Oxford and the University of East London to consider a series of inter-related issues: problems of choice and constraint, forced migrants and the nation-state, and refugees and history.