The Language of Asylum: Refugees and Discourse PDF
Preview The Language of Asylum: Refugees and Discourse
The Language of Asylum AlsobyChrisMcVittieandAndyMcKinlay IDENTITIESINCONTEXT:IndividualsandDiscourseinAction SOCIALPSYCHOLOGYANDDISCOURSE The Language of Asylum Refugees and Discourse Steve Kirkwood UniversityofEdinburgh,UK Simon Goodman CoventryUniversity,UK Chris McVittie QueenMargaretUniversity,UK Andy McKinlay UniversityofEdinburgh,UK ©SteveKirkwood,SimonGoodman,ChrisMcVittieand AndyMcKinlay2016 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2016 978-1-137-46115-5 Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionofthis publicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noportionofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedortransmitted savewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewiththeprovisionsofthe Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,orunderthetermsofanylicence permittinglimitedcopyingissuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency, SaffronHouse,6–10KirbyStreet,LondonEC1N8TS. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorizedactinrelationtothispublication maybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivilclaimsfordamages. Theauthorshaveassertedtheirrightstobeidentifiedastheauthorsofthis workinaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Firstpublished2016by PALGRAVEMACMILLAN PalgraveMacmillanintheUKisanimprintofMacmillanPublishersLimited, registeredinEngland,companynumber785998,ofHoundmills,Basingstoke, HampshireRG216XS. PalgraveMacmillanintheUSisadivisionofStMartin’sPressLLC, 175FifthAvenue,NewYork,NY10010. PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabovecompanies andhascompaniesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld. Palgrave®andMacmillan®areregisteredtrademarksintheUnitedStates, theUnitedKingdom,Europeandothercountries. ISBN 978-1-349-57613-5 ISBN 978-1-137-46116-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-46116-2 Thisbookisprintedonpapersuitableforrecyclingandmadefromfully managedandsustainedforestsources.Logging,pulpingandmanufacturing processesareexpectedtoconformtotheenvironmentalregulationsofthe countryoforigin. AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. AcatalogrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress. Contents Acknowledgements vi Introduction 1 Part I SeekingAsylumandtheJourney 1 PolicyandResearchonRefugeesandAsylum-Seekers 7 2 TheoryandMethodinUnderstandingtheExperiences ofRefugeesandAsylum-Seekers 24 Part II GettingHere 3 PlacesofDeath–ConstructingAsylum-Seekers’and Refugees’CountriesofOrigin 43 4 PlacesofSafety–ConstructingCountriesofRefuge 61 5 WhoCountsasanAsylum-SeekerorRefugee? 78 Part III BeingHere 6 Asylum-SeekersandtheRighttoWork 99 7 RelationshipswithLocalResidents–Antagonism,Racism andBelonging 121 Part IV StayingHereorGoingBack 8 Refugees,Asylum-SeekersandIntegration 143 9 Destitution,DetentionandForcedReturn 162 Part V Conclusion 10 Conclusion 183 KeyTerms 195 References 199 Index 209 v Acknowledgements Wewouldliketothankallofthosewhosupportedorparticipatedinthe research that forms the basis of this book. We would especially like to thank those asylum-seekers and refugees who were willing to tell their storiestous. vi Introduction Itwasabattlebetweenmeanddeath.Iwassurethatdeathwas goingtowinandIwouldlose,butAlhamdulillah,finallyIwon when I arrived to [the] UK alive...None of us could believe afterwardsthatwewereinthatkindofsituationandwerestill alive. (Kennedy,2012) Seekingasylumandthejourney Above we see the words of 15-year-old Qadir describing the effects for himofatwo-yearjourneymadetotheUKtoescapeimminentdanger in his local village outside Kabul, Afghanistan. In making this journey withoutanylegalguardian,supportorlegaldocuments,Qadirwastraf- ficked by people-smugglers and, when not being transported by lorry, wasrequiredtowalkforlengthyperiodsacrossdesertandsnow-covered mountains without adequate clothing or food. Many of Qadir’s com- panionsonthisjourneywereforcedtostealfortheircaptors,physically beatenorsexuallyabused.Somewhowereatpointsunabletocontinue were simply abandoned to their fate. In reaching the UK, and being granted temporary discretionary leave to remain there, Qadir was one of the fortunate ones of those who started out on the arduous and horrendousjourneyfromAfghanistan. Qadir’sjourney,comprisingpersonalsufferingandendurance,dealing with risk as a matter of routine, and leading to an uncertain future, is inmanyrespectstypicalofthejourneysmadebymanywhofleeplaces of danger in the hope of finding safety elsewhere. Yet this geographi- caltransitionisonlythefirstjourneythatapersonseekingasylumina new country will have to make: arrival at the country of destination 1 2 TheLanguageofAsylum marks the end of one journey but signals the beginning of another one, a journey that in its own way might be every bit as demanding and uncertain as that of the escape from danger to apparent physical safety. The processes involved in seeking asylum in a country that is inevitably unfamiliar, and in contexts that would be difficult even for those who might be more aware of what would be asked or expected of them, present their own challenges. It is, however, the challenges of this journey that the asylum-seeker must negotiate in order to suc- ceed in achieving his or her aim of securing refuge in a country of safety. Thistext It is this second journey, and how asylum-seekers and refugees travel alongit,thatprovidesthefocusforthistext.Hereweexamineindetail thechainofeventsandconsequencesthattheasylum-seeker,orwould- berefugee,requirestonegotiatefollowingarrivalintheUK. In adopting this focus, this book examines a social concern that lies at the heart of a number of social and political debates within con- temporary Britain. At the same time, this book addresses a major gap in contemporary research literature. The topic of refugees and asylum- seekers, and associated topics such as integration and prejudice, are of long-standinginteresttosocialresearchers.However,todate,littlework has explored the discourse of UK refugees and asylum-seekers them- selvesastheyseektodescribeandexplaintheirownlivedexperiences. Thepeoplewhosetalkispresentedinthisbookdojustthat.Thereader isgivenalivelyunderstandingofhowpeopleinthissituationtalkabout theircountriesoforigin,andhowsuchtalkdoesordoesnotimpacton whethertheyareacceptedorrejectedas‘genuine’refugeesandasylum- seekers. At the same time, the book explores the same issues in the talk of local residents and also in the talk of those who, through their work in non-governmental organizations, are closely tied up with the experiencesoftheserefugeesandasylum-seekers. Yet our intention here is not merely to understand how refugees, asylum-seekers, locals and professional refugee workers make sense of these experiences. We are equally concerned with understanding what theoutcomesofsuchunderstandingsareforthissetofpeople.Thusin this book we also explore the choppy waters of contemporary debates onintegration,astheyareunderstoodbythepeoplewetalkto.Wealso lookathowourparticipantstalkedaboutasylum-seekers’righttowork, andexplorehowsuchrightsandentitlementsarepresentedasboundup Introduction 3 withmorefundamentalquestionsofwhotherefugeeorasylum-seeker isandhowheorshegothere. In these ways, we aim to give the reader a sense of the refugee and asylum-seeker ‘journey’: from those processes that impact on whether peoplearedeemedtobeappropriateforentryintotheUK,throughthe experiencesofwhathappenstothemwhiletheyarehere,totheeven- tual outcome of integration (whatever that might mean) or exclusion. Attheendofthetext,weprovideanoverviewofhowthefindingsset outinthisbookcontributetobroaderquestionsofpolicyandpractice towardsrefugeesandasylum-seekersintwenty-firstcenturyBritain. Oneofthemajoradvantagesinthistextisthatthecontentsarepre- sented in terms of readily identifiable themes that reflect large-scale social concerns. This approach has clear benefits for the student, the teacherandfortheresearcher.Forstudentandteacher,eachchapterpro- vides an account of one particular aspect of the experience of refugees and asylum-seekers. In part, this will provide the teacher with an eas- ilyaccessible‘narrative’,whichwillsupporttheproductionofteaching materials such as lectures and seminars. For the researcher, there is an additional benefit. As well as providing distinct research themes across the book, they also represent an integrated whole in which potential research themes and linkages across themes can be readily identified. The text is specifically designed so that, depending on the interests of thereader,itcanbereadasawholeorthereadermaytreateachchapter orsetofchaptersas‘self-contained’. Structureofthebook The text is structured into five main parts. In Part I we examine the contexts within which the journey of asylum might be understood. Chapter 1 outlines the history of the idea of asylum and how it came to be taken up and recognized on an international scale, along with elements that enact key elements of the asylum process as it is recog- nized today. Here we consider also the role that the UK has adopted in relation to acknowledgement and acceptance or non-acceptance of those who arrive on these shores seeking asylum. These are set along- side the context of previous research findings on the topics of seeking asylum and refugee status, and of possible integration into UK soci- ety. Going on from there, Chapter 2 takes up the question of how the experiences of those who seek asylum can be studied. Many previous studies have offered findings that attempt to shed some light on the experiencesofasylum-seekersandrefugees;ratherfewer,however,have
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