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Policing the 'asylum crisis', anti-detention campaigns and counter discourse on asylum in the UK

Moore, Kerry ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7520-787X 2005. Policing the 'asylum crisis', anti-detention campaigns and counter discourse on asylum in the UK. Signs of the Times Collective 2005 (13 Apr)

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Abstract

This paper examines asylum detention in Britain and the politics of its justificatory discourses under the New Labour government from 1999. Dominant discourses on asylum in this period have situated so called, ‘bogus asylum seekers’ as a dangerous ‘other’ in relation to Britain’s ‘law abiding majority’. These ideas have gained in currency through a marked discursive shift whereby the representation of asylum has been reframed. I examine how the detention of asylum seekers has formed an important part of this reframing, with asylum becoming a key constituent of post 9/11 concerns about ‘national security’. However, the case study of asylum detention in Scotland also provides an example of how a counter discourse to the dominant one of ‘asylum crisis’ might be constructed, pointing towards a more humanitarian agenda rather than a securitising response to asylum seekers’ presence in Britain. I ask to what extent this kind of hegemonic challenge to dominant ideas on asylum has reformed asylum discourse in Scotland, and also to what extent such a change is replicable elsewhere in the UK.

Item Type: Article
Date Type: Publication
Status: Published
Schools: Journalism, Media and Culture
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races
J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) > JN101 Great Britain
J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration
J Political Science > JZ International relations
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Last Modified: 13 Jan 2023 02:38
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/53008

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