Systems of Suffering

Jonathan Darling

Description

Of the many state-enacted cruelties to which refugees and asylum seekers are subjected, detention and deportation loom largest in popular consciousness. But there is a third practice, perpetrating a slower violence, that remains hidden: dispersal.

Jonathan Darling provides the first detailed account of how dispersal - the system of accommodation and support for asylum seekers and refugees in Britain - both sustains and produces patterns of violence, suffering and social abjection. He explores the evolution of dispersal as a privatised process, from the first outsourced asylum accommodation contracts in 2012 to the renewed wave of outsourcing pursued by the Home Office today.

Drawing on six years of research into Britain's dispersal system, and foregrounding the voices and experiences of refugees and asylum seekers, Darling argues that dispersal has played a central role in the erasure of asylum from public concern. Systems of Suffering is a vital tool in the arsenal of those fighting to hold the government to account for the violence of its asylum policy and practice.

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. Dispersal, Debilitation, and Distributed Violence

2. Creating Dispersal

3. Outsourcing Asylum

4. The Retreat of Local Government

5. Dismantling Support

6. Enduring Asylum

7. Enduring Otherwise: Counter-conducts of Care

Conclusion

Notes

Index

Sujets

• Human Geography
• Human Rights
• Social Science
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Homelessness
• Poverty
• Asylum
• Migration

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 mai 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781786807212
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Systems of Suffering
Elegant and disturbing [...] a brilliant analysis of the cruel biopolitics of care in contemporary Britain.
-Ash Amin, Chair of Geography, University of Cambridge
Indispensable reading for anyone interested in the contemporary policies, practices, spaces, and politics of asylum.
-Suzan Ilcan, Professor of Sociology, University of Waterloo, Ontario
A tour-de-force. The evidence for the violence of the country s system of dispersal of asylum-seekers is shocking. Bursting with ideas, this book contains the seeds of an urgently-needed political, social and cultural transformation.
-Ben Rogaly, Professor of Human Geography, University of Sussex
Rigorously diagnoses a long-term malaise in the UK system of asylum accommodation . An inexorably unaccountable system hidden in plain sight, in poverty blighted communities. A system that separates people from mainstream life, frequently with loss of hope and health. A system that reduces people to unit costs in often profitable company accounts. A system that does not need to be like this. This book shows us how to change it.
-Graham O Neill, human rights worker, Commission for Racial Equality, Equality and Human Rights Commission and Scottish Refugee Council
A forensic and compelling examination of how systems that exist in theory to protect some of the most vulnerable people in our society end up harming them.
-Daniel Trilling, journalist and author of Lights in The Distance: Exile and Refuge at the Borders of Europe
Systems of Suffering
Dispersal and the Denial of Asylum
Jonathan Darling
First published 2022 by Pluto Press
New Wing, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright Jonathan Darling 2022
The right of Jonathan Darling to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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ISBN 978 0 7453 4048 7 Paperback
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Simultaneously printed in the United Kingdom and United States of America
For Helen
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Dispersal, Debilitation, and Distributed Violence
2. Creating Dispersal
3. Outsourcing Asylum
4. The Retreat of Local Government
5. Dismantling Support
6. Enduring Asylum
7. Enduring Otherwise: Counter-conducts of Care
Conclusion
Notes
Index
Acknowledgements
This book would not have been possible without the support, insight, and generosity of a range of collaborators, colleagues, and friends. First, I would like to thank all of those individuals and organisations that so generously gave their time to discuss dispersal with me. From local authority staff and elected representatives to volunteers and staff at refugee support organisations across the country, your insights have provided the foundations on which this book is built. In particular, my thanks to Lorna Gledhill, John Grayson, and Graham O Neill for your ongoing engagement with this work and for your unwavering commitment to questioning dispersal and advancing the rights of those seeking refuge. My profound thanks to all of those asylum seekers and refugees I met during my time exploring dispersal. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with me, for offering me your time and insight, and for trusting me to convey at least some of the harm that dispersal produces.
During the writing of this book, I had the enormous privilege of becoming a trustee of the No Accommodation Network (NACCOM), a UK-wide charity working to end destitution among migrants. At NACCOM I have been lucky to work with a brilliant and supportive team of staff and trustees and have learned a great deal from their commitment to supporting and sustaining accommodation projects. Their passion for social justice and for building systems that care in the here and now has left a mark on this book in multiple ways. My thanks to the team of Jessie Seal, Lucy Smith, Paul Catterall, Hannah Gurnham, Katie Fawcett, Angela Stapley, Dave Smith, Bridget Young, Hazel Williams, and Renae Mann, and to my fellow trustees, Julian Prior, Catherine Houlcroft, Jochen Kortlaender, Caron Boulghassoul, Washington Ali, Phil Davis, Sarah-Jane Gay, Olivier Robin, and Shukry A.
This book began life with a research project, Producing Urban Asylum , which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ref: ES/K001612/1). I am incredibly thankful for this funding and for the opportunities it afforded me. This project was completed while I worked in Geography at the University of Manchester, a department that I am grateful to for giving me an opportunity to develop my research and for believing in me early in my career. At Manchester, I was lucky to work with a brilliant group of colleagues and friends; my thanks to Alice Bloch, Stefan Bouzarovski, Bridget Byrne, Noel Castree, Gareth Clay, Martin Hess, John Moore, Saska Petrova, James Rothwell, Emma Shuttleworth, Fiona Smyth, Mark Usher, Saskia Warren, and Maja Zehfuss. In particular, I owe a debt of gratitude to Kevin Ward, who not only served as a thoughtful mentor, but also a kind and generous friend, always ready to offer sage advice and guidance, be it about outsourcing and corporate finance or the merits, and otherwise, of Chorlton s bars and caf s!
The book continued to take shape, and was completed, after I joined the Department of Geography at Durham University. At Durham, I am immensely fortunate to be surrounded by colleagues who are supportive, sharp, and who do much to foster an environment in which to think and work creatively. My thanks to Louise Amoore, Mike Bentley, Mike Crang, Adam Holden, Elizabeth Johnson, Sarah Knuth, Noam Leshem, Gordon Macleod, Cheryl McEwan, Joe Painter, Anna Secor, Chris Stokes, and John Thompson. In addition, my profound thanks to Ben Anderson, Gavin Bridge, Lauren Martin, and Colin McFarlane, who all read through drafts of the book and offered their considerable insight to help develop the arguments being made.
During my time at Manchester and Durham, I have been lucky to work with a brilliant group of PhD students, who have helped to shape my thinking and offered me fresh perspectives over the years. Thanks to C cile Blouin, Georgia Dimitriou, Jessica Field, Alice Fogg, Ben Ellul-Knight, Gwyneth Lonergan, Alistair Sheldrick, and Xiaochen Yu. Alongside these colleagues and students, I have benefited considerably from the advice, support, and commentary of a range of wonderful scholars. The opportunity to share ideas, collaborate on projects, and engage with the work of others is a real privilege of working in this field. For their contributions, friendship, and care, I would like to thank: Camilla Alberti, Ash Amin, Les Back, Jen Bagelman, Harald Bauder, Dominika Blachnicka-Ciacek, Dan Bulley, Kathy Burrell, Andrew Burridge, Neil Coe, Michael Collyer, Elizabeth Cullen Dunn, Olga Demetriou, Anne-Marie Fortier, Nick Gill, Bethan Harries, Ruth Healey, Sophie Hinger, Sarah Hughes, Tariq Jazeel, Heather Johnson, Maria Kaika, Irit Katz, Rene Kreichauf, William Kutz, L a Lemaire, Piaras MacEinri, Jon May, Eugene McCann, Sara Miellet, Gareth Millington, Sybille Munch, Caitriona Ni Laoire, Lucas Oesch, Barbara Oomen, Stijn Oosterlynck, Mark Rainey, Clare Rishbeth, Ben Rogaly, Romola Sanyal, Nick Schuermanns, Michela Semprebon, Anna Siede, Nando Sigona, Bal Soki-Bulley, Vicki Squire, Tobias Stapf, Thomas Swerts, Imogen Tyler, and Ilse van Liempt.
Aspects of this book have been presented at multiple locations and forums over recent years. In particular, I would like to thank organisers and audiences of seminars and workshops at Utrecht University, London School of Economics, Kings College London, Sciences Po Paris, University of Luxembourg, Queens University Belfast, Glasgow University, University of Newcastle, and University College Cork, and to the organisers of the 2020 International Migration Research Network Spring Conference at the University of Lisbon who invited me to give a keynote lecture on the book.
At Pluto, I am immensely grateful to Neda Tehrani for supporting this project from the outset and for all the advice and guidance along the way. Thanks to Emily Orford and Kieran O Connor for working on the marketing of the book, and to Melanie Patrick for the cover design. Thanks to Robert Webb for seeing the book through production, and to Huw Jones for his careful and precise copy-editing. Thanks also to the three reviewers for their generous and instructive comments that have helped to sharpen the text.
Thanks to my family, who have all contributed in multiple ways to the completion of this book. My parents Ann and Michael, my sister Rebecca, and my niece and nephew Jessica and Charlie have all been a source of unconditional love and support throughout. They have shown an admirable interest in my work from day one, and kept drawing me back to what really matters when writing and thinking were tough.
Finally, my profound thanks to the person who has done so much to shape my thinking, my writing, and my life: my partner, Helen Wilson, whose constant and unwavering support has seen me through the peaks and troughs of so much, and whose generous editorial commentary has always challenged me to produce my best. Helen, I am indescribably lucky to have someone to share so much with and who brings such generosity, wisdom, and warmth into my life. This book is for you.
Introduction
On 25 June 2013, Stephen Small, the Managing Director of Immigration and Borders for G4S, a