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This paper offers a case study of the dynamic of securitisation of asylum seekers and migrants in Poland since 2015. It uses a unique case of the external actor – the Belarussian government – not merely threatening to escalate the pre-existing situation but actively constructing it by creating new migration flows and forcibly pushing asylum-seekers and migrants into the EU. By reconstructing the discourse and practice of the securitising actor and the intervention of the external actor, the paper shows that the pre-existing securitisation of asylum seekers and migrants in Poland was instrumentalised by the external actor, which led to the further development and intensification of the securitising policies and practices and their justifications. The analysis contributes to our understanding of the securitisation process in the moment of the context change as triggered by an exogenous factor – an intervention by the external actor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In introducing the Sport in Society special issue, this paper aims to extend and deepen conversations among scholars, policy makers and practitioners about the role of sport in relation to contexts and issues of forced migration. The five themes that cut across the contributions to this special issue address and expand existing and emerging concerns in the literature, specifically focusing on: 1) participatory methodologies, power, voice and ethics; 2) emotions and embodiment; 3) gendered, socio-ecological and intersectional perspectives; 4) critical perspectives on integration and intercultural communication; and 5) fandom and media representations of forced migrants in elite sport. Often contributing to several of these themes at once, the papers in this special issue critically analyse and interrogate the implications of existing approaches, practices, and research around sport and forced migration. They do so by engaging with complex, yet necessary, dialogues and perspectives that cross disciplinary boundaries, and by not shying away from conceptual and ethical tensions that interrogate concepts, methodologies, policies and forms of representation regarding forced migrants' experiences and contributions to global sporting cultures. While not (cl)aiming to exhaustively address the wide variety of issues and contexts that are relevant to the relationship between sport and forced migration, the papers in this special issue provide key contributions to advance critical scholarly analyses and inform applied interventions on the ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between the defence spending of European NATO members and their exposure to asylum seekers. While research shows that threat perceptions and domestic politics partly determine the defence spending of a state, the effect of migration has so far not been studied. This is remarkable because migration is increasingly framed as a security threat, also by NATO and European Union member states. Using a panel analysis, this paper explores the relationship between the defence spending of 23 European NATO members and the number of asylum seekers they register each year between 2000 and 2020. Results show a positive and significant relationship between the number of asylum seekers registered in a country and its overall military expenditure relative to GDP, equipment spending, and infrastructure spending. These findings shed new light on the origins of defence spending in collective security alliances, at a time when transatlantic burden sharing is at the centre of societal and academic debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact of the UK's racialized asylum system on mothers and their children. Asylum-seeking mothers in the UK are treated with hostility and suspicion and prohibited from basic socio-economic rights such as employment yet must also raise their children within this hostile environment. In this paper, based on a Thematic Narrative Analysis of interviews with refugee and asylum-seeking mothers in Wales, we argue that legalized hostility and exclusion are systemic coercive control. Using theories of social reproduction and coercive control, we explore the emotional and psychological impact of coercion on four women and show how this systemic coercive control leads to both the fracturing of families and the fracturing of motherhood. Through the analysis of asylum-seeking mothers' experiences, we show that the coercion exerted on the women has direct and indirect impacts on their children through deprivation, isolation and fractured relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The marked increase in the flow of asylum seekers and refugees to nations with white majority cultures is perceived as a crisis that needs to be well managed. The arrival of these ethnic-minority newcomers from countries in Africa, the Middle East, South/Central America and Asia contribute to national security concerns, border protection measures, restrictive immigration policies, everyday anxieties and racism. Australia, however, 'manages' the 'surge' of these newcomers through institutional practices that recognise their precarity but are oppressive in regulating their freedom to move. This paper engages with the special issue theme of temporariness by centring urban life that shows precarity but also offers brief moments of freedom for refugees and asylum seekers. It focuses on Darwin, a small tropical north Australian city known for its polyethnic history, open-air multicultural markets but also carceral landscapes dotted with prisons, high security detention centres 'lodges' and 'apartments'. The paper draws attention to two weekly activities in public spaces of suburban Darwin that provide brief moments of freedom enabling asylum seekers and refugees to move in the city even though they feel shackled by government laws and policies – 'Football without Borders' popular among young men; and 'My Sisters' Kitchen', a collective that welcomes women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several recent studies have examined experiences of waiting and spatial and temporal immobility among refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants. This paper investigates recent migrants' experiences of waiting and (spatial and temporal) immobility in the context of COVID-19 lockdowns, and against the background of pandemic isolation and boredom. It asks how public health measures affected 'recently' arrived migrants' and how these migrants experienced waiting and immobility differently before and during the pandemic. We argue that differences in recent migrants' status and housing situations shape how they experience immobility during and beyond the pandemic. This paper contributes to research on immobility in migration by highlighting the importance of diverse emotional geographies of loneliness and frustration; it concludes that immobility is situated along an isolation-to-agitation continuum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flows of refugees have ignited the European political debate, thereby boosting nationalistic forces in almost all countries. The aim of this paper is to counterbalance a widespread view about their overall impact and show that the number of asylum seekers did not represent a 'refugee crises'. It argues, however, that the current European Union institutions and procedures are highly insufficient to successfully manage refugee inflows and asylum requests. It is often forgotten that large number of refugees are created from conflicts initiated or not prevented by EU members themselves. Once the problem comes into existence, as the procedures based on the Dublin Convention are widely recognised as inadequate, the paper provides a few suggestions for implementing radical changes to manage refugees and asylum seekers in the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many migrant groups, particularly those that are politically and economically marginalised, such as asylum seekers and refugees (ASRs), face inequities in access to health care as well as poorer physical and mental health outcomes. The role of post-arrival experiences in contributing to these inequities is increasingly being explored, and it is suggested that being a migrant is itself a determinant of health outcomes. Drawing on the theoretical concept of structural vulnerability, this paper explores ASRs' experiences of health, wellbeing, and health practices in the context of their lived realities in Scotland. 24 semi-structured interviews were conducted with ASRs from Sub-Saharan Africa between January and December 2015. Data were explored using thematic analysis. Experience of the UK asylum system, both alone and in conjunction with other sources of vulnerability including racism, poverty, and language barriers had a negative and ongoing impact on the physical and mental health of ASRs. These impacts continued, even once refugee status was obtained. Efforts to engage ASRs in preventive health programmes and practices must take into account the ways in which the asylum system acts as a determinant of health, affecting both what it means to be healthy and what capacity individuals have to engage with their health. Political choices in how the asylum process is enacted have far-reaching implications for individual and population health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asylum-seeking women's liminal citizenship in home countries is a contributing factor to their irregular migration. In this paper, we examine how conditions of gendered citizenship, specifically family violence, exert additional pressures on women to undertake irregular journeys. In examining the narratives of refugee and asylum-seeking women from Iran and Afghanistan, women spoke of multiple instances of family violence in home countries, in addition to the more traditionally understood factors of insecurity associated with irregular migration, such as conflict, torture and war. Using the concept of lived citizenship to examine women's experiences, we contribute to the nexus of knowledge on global mobility, gender and family violence. These findings are important to ensure women who seek asylum have supports and services tailored to them that address these issues within the broader family violence schema in affluent host nations, including within the Australian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on asylum court hearing observations and oral history interviews with asylum seekers and governmental personnel to examine the impact of nonverbal communication and displays of emotion in asylum interviews and hearings in the United States. The narrators describe why nonverbal communication plays such a central role in the asylum process and, building on theoretical foundations from communication studies, the paper offers an in-depth illustration of the ways eye contact and movement in particular influence the interpretations of asylum seekers' claims for protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the normative permissibility of differential inclusion policies, taking Germany as a case study. In the face of mounting asylum applications, Germany introduced new administrative rules differentiating access to integration for asylum seekers. The paper normatively examines whether this practice is consistent with two conventional liberal concepts: special obligations grounding the moral commitments of the liberal state towards its own citizens and the principle of legal certainty grounding its moral commitments towards everyone under its jurisdiction, including asylum seekers. Combining these two usually separately employed perspectives, it argues that while differential inclusion is in principle consistent with these liberal principles, the crude criterion of the country of origin does not comply with both perspectives. The paper contributes to the debate on the ethics of immigration by scrutinizing this real-world instrument of differential inclusion from a political philosophy perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With increasing international migration, social workers have not only been confronted with growing diversity, but also with the effects of displacement, trauma and immigration controls in the lives of their service users. Although the ongoing debates on migration, migrant integration and social cohesion have facilitated a growing literature on, and demand for cultural competence in social work, little progress has been made to arrive at an agreement of what exactly is required from social workers in cross-cultural encounters. This paper draws from the qualitative element of a mixed-methods study on social workers' experiences of cross-cultural practice conducted in Glasgow, Scotland in 2016. By focusing on social workers' experiences of accommodating and negotiating cultural differences with asylum seekers, this paper illustrates how social workers are moving beyond the cultural lens in understanding difference and disadvantage. The findings suggest that whilst culture continues to influence social workers' encounters with service users, addressing cultural conflicts requires social workers to understand the complex power relations which asylum seekers are subject to both within and beyond the care relationship. Practice perspectives on the challenges and successes in cross-cultural social work illustrate the interplay between cultural and structural considerations involved in social work with asylum seekers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What effect does the influx of asylum seekers have on the electoral support of the far right? This paper answers this question by examining changes in support for far right parties in response to the British government's relocation of asylum seekers across the United Kingdom from 2000 to 2015. Relying primarily on a difference-in-differences (DD) empirical strategy, our main finding is that an increase in the number of asylum seekers dispersed to a local authority is associated with an increase in the vote share of parties of the far right. Further tests indicate that the effect is due both to the far right contesting more seats in those localities receiving asylum seekers and to higher levels of support it receives in those areas where it is present. We find the effect is non-linear, that it is mitigated by higher recipient area ethnic diversity, and that it is limited to the most extreme right-wing parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically interrogates the 'integrative potential' of football by drawing on ethnographic fieldwork that includes 84 semi-structured interviews with refugees, asylum seekers and local community organizations, and five interviews with representatives of national football associations across Southeast Europe, a region that has hitherto been under-examined in this field of research. The results show the uneasy and strained relationship between football and integration, characterized by incongruity between micro-level practices and experiences of solidarity and inclusion, and State-sponsored marginality and deterrence taking place in Southeast Europe. We provide empirical evidence for social connections, facilitators (i.e. language and communication, safety and stability), and rights as relevant, meaningful and challenging domains of integration in the context of football. We conclude that foundational rights, and hence dehumanizing policies and discourses, need to be addressed if the proclaimed 'integrative potential' of football is to be realized beyond social connections and sporadic examples of access to decent work through football. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the multi-layered barriers asylum seekers face in accessing secure and adequate housing in a host society through the case of Catalonia (Spain). While the existing literature mainly focuses on the effects of micro-level factors, we argue that these need to be analysed in combination with meso-level actors and macro-structural phenomena. Drawing on an exploratory survey of 300 international protection applicants and 60 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders and asylum seekers, we analyse their exposure to different dimensions of housing precariousness. Our research finds that, although certain individual characteristics such as age, sex and origin remain relevant in explaining housing pathways, these factors are strongly mediated by the role of NGOs and support networks, and by the structural features of the asylum system and housing market. We conclude that the complex interactions of these factors result in deeply unstable and fragmented housing trajectories that contribute to high levels of disorientation, precariousness, and exclusion among those seeking accommodation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the intertextuality of asylum documents by analysing the links between the documents in various stages of the process. The paper argues that the asylum process materialises in asylum documents and that these documents are inherently intertextual. Thus, they create intertextual chains, that is, they are based on previous documents, which in turn become sources of subsequent documents, thereby creating new links to the chain. The article traces two asylum cases in Finland from the asylum interview to the appeal process while paying special attention to recontextualisation, inclusion and exclusion, assumptions, and absences. The analysis also shows how the inclusions and exclusions can be used in recontextualisation, how the assumptions and absences intertwine with one another, and what kind of consequences these may have for an asylum process. The paper provides an opening in discussing how asylum documents are formed as intertextual chains and how they can be reformed in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the conditionality in relation to fundamental rights during and after the visa liberalisation dialogues that took place between the European Commission and national governments of the Western Balkans countries in 2009 and 2010. Conceptually, this paper uses the visa liberalisation to study the interactions between the conditionality mechanism and securitisation paradigm in the context of the European Union (EU) justice, freedom and security area. Analysing both the formal benchmarking process and data from stakeholders’ interviews, this paper demonstrates the securitisation and side-lining of fundamental rights during and in the aftermath of the visa negotiations. As a result, this paper informs of unwanted effects of conditionality and questions the role of the EU in promoting fundamental rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its long history of resettling refugees, Australia's acceptance of asylum seekers continues to attract considerable debate and division. This is exacerbated by news coverage that constructs people seeking asylum along a "threat" versus "victim" binary. As most Australians lack direct experience with people from asylum seeking backgrounds, media discourse plays a pivotal role in societal understandings of the issue. This paper discusses research combining Critical Discourse Analysis with a cultural studies Audience Reception epistemology to examine how 24 Western Australians respond to news representations of asylum seekers. Participants drew upon their own perspectives when discussing Australian coverage, highlighting the importance of accounting for audiences' ideological positioning when examining their perspectives on news discourse. While some accepted dominant constructions of asylum seekers as a "threat" and argued that the "victim" narrative is emotionally manipulative, others rejected both tropes, positing that the former legitimises asylum seekers' exclusion while the latter portrays them as deficient and agentless. These findings are discussed with consideration of their implications - in both a practice and scholarly context—demonstrating the value of applying critical discourse methods in audience reception research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper examines the housing trajectories of complete cohorts of asylum migrants in Switzerland. It emphasizes the logistics of housing allocation by local authorities and how it shapes individual opportunity structure. We use full-population register data and analyse one key transition: the transition out of collective centre assigned upon arrival to the private and subsidized housing sectors. Event history models show the association between individual and contextual factors and the speed of access to private housing. Despite the quasi-autonomous management of refugee housing by region, priority rules regarding access to private housing were found to apply across the country. When choosing between different profiles, women, older asylum migrants, married individuals, and members of larger national groups are favoured in obtaining access to private housing. Nevertheless, the time spent in collective centres largely depends on the region to which a claimant is assigned, pointing to the minimal agency asylum migrants have during their first years of residence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractMigration process is a well-known risk factor for a number of mental disorders, particularly psychotic, trauma-related and major mood disorders. However, refugees and asylum seekers (RAS) often face several challenges in accessing mental health facilities, leading to treatment delays, resulting in worse prognosis and increased risk of referral to the emergency departments or receiving coercive measures, including involuntary hospitalizations in the psychiatric settings. This review aims to delineate the prevalence of coercive measures within the RAS population and identify potential predictors for such interventions, in order to highlight possible preventive strategies. The relevant PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases were searched for papers. Twenty-three articles were included in the review. Our findings highlight that the RAS population is at higher risk of being coerced compared to the native population due to clinical factors, cultural differences and the many barriers to the access to mental health services. Since coercive measures are often harmful and lead to a worse clinical outcome and possible (re)traumatization of patients, specific strategies to prevent this phenomenon are urgently needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically examines the placement of people seeking asylum in temporary accommodation during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is based on a 14-month collaborative ethnography conducted between 2020 and 2022 with asylum seeking individuals in Glasgow. While moves to temporary accommodation were framed by state authorities and private firms as providing a "safe environment" from COVID-19, we show how these relocations amounted to a racialised process which constructed our participants as "undeserving" and "unworthy" of protection and care during a period of crisis. Our analysis highlights how this racialisation took place not only on a policy level but also in practice through everyday encounters with private provider staff. Advancing the literature on asylum housing and dispersal through new theoretical and empirical contributions, we argue that the rise of temporary forms of asylum accommodation can be understood as constitutive of racial modes of belonging within a regime of differential humanity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Refugee and asylum seeker children in Indonesia have experienced exclusion and inequitable education. This paper, therefore, examines what are the gaps between International and Indonesian national laws on the right to education and its implementation in order to demonstrate educational exclusion and inequity. Subsequently, it scrutinizes the reasons why the inclusion and equity in the education of refugee and asylum seeker children should have been promoted in Indonesia. This paper examines international and national (Indonesian) documents (namely official law provisions, academic works, and research papers) and interviews with 13 informants in Jakarta and Bogor for data analysis. The findings reveal that the Indonesian national laws related to the right to education and its implementation have not been adequately recognized and exercised in accordance with the international laws. This paper argues that the Indonesian government should take into consideration the inclusive and equitable education for refugee children because these children are subject to an educational emergency. Moreover, the children could play some key roles in social, cultural, political and economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the link between organized crime and Italy's publicly funded asylum seekers' reception facilities. We gather detailed municipal-level data on the location of mafia activities and Protection System for Asylum Seekers and Refugees (SPRAR)-type reception centres, and provide evidence of how the local presence of mafia increases the likelihood of hosting reception facilities. Statistical evidence and in-depth expert interviews suggest that organized crime correlates with less transparent tendering procedures in the set-up of such centres, while hosting activities increase after local governments are infiltrated by mafias. Overall, results underscore the importance of measures aimed at contrasting organized crime, especially at times of 'crises' when public policy is subject to 'states of exception'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Social Work is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The contribution and role of psychologists, psychiatrists or mental health practitioners in working alongside forced migrants may take many forms. The guidance on which this paper is based, came about when several members of the British Psychological Society (including those with lived experience and insight and those who had set up services); became aware of the need for good practice guidance for clinicians working with refugees, asylum seekers including forced migrants across Britain. These guidelines cover a range of areas where clinicians work with individuals in clinical contexts, schools, nurseries, colleges and within community organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'refugee crisis' in Europe has drawn attention to the reasons why people risk desperate journeys to seek safety. However, less research has focussed on what happens to those on the move once they have reached their destination country. In recent years the UK government's 'hostile environment' policy for asylum seekers has taken precedence over attempts to integrate refugees, creating a system in which destitution, dispersal and detention have all become pervasive features. This paper takes a discursive psychological approach to the analysis of interviews with asylum seekers in Wales, UK. It argues that participants draw on economic repertoires of effortfulness to construct accounts in which belonging is dependent upon being able to contribute to the economic and civic life of the host society. It further highlights how participants construct accounts in which restriction from the asylum system is positioned as the reason for not belonging and that time spent as an asylum seeker is policy-imposed liminality. The findings suggest that allowing asylum seekers to work would be a key step forward in integration policy and contribute to generating a greater sense of belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses critical reflection as its primary methodology to research one Master of Social Work student's former practice experiences as an Australian immigration officer. The paper contextualizes the study by offering a critical analysis of hegemonic constructions of asylum seekers in Australia, which are reflected in Australian law and policy, as well as potentially influencing social work practice. Critical reflection on one of the author's practice provides a rich case study that reveals the tensions of government-employed social workers in restrictive environments, and the espoused social justice values of the profession. The findings hold implications for both social work education and practice, suggesting that critical social work education, and in particular, the use of critical analysis and reflection, can improve ethical practice with refugees and asylum seekers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at understanding inclusive capacity of legal system in Turkey by evaluating dynamics of professional advocacy in administrative detention for Syrian refugees in irregular positions. Our empirical study revealed Turkish judicial system, despite its push toward centralization and professionalization in the name of identification by the European impact, has a serious lack of translation and interpretation facilities, procedural incompleteness as the issue of bureaucracy in overloaded functions, and incompetency in migration-specific jurisdiction. We claim these shortcomings associating with manifestation of discrimination toward Syrians disallow to overcome the exclusionary mechanisms toward irregular migrants, except for some attorneys' professional efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on data from in-depth interviews with refused asylum seekers from Zimbabwe and Kurds from Turkey, who have stayed in Britain as irregular migrants, this paper examines everyday lives, strategies and fears. The paper focuses on four main areas: individual experiences of the asylum system leading to irregularity; living as an irregular migrant with the constraints on economic participation and limited housing options; social lives, relationships and community activities alongside the ways in which decisions about social interactions intersect with irregularity and subsistence support; the fears and everyday struggles faced by irregular migrant's living in England, and the ways in which this translates into relationships with place and space. The paper draws out both the commonalities and the diversity of experiences among refused asylum seekers living in England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from qualitative research with female asylum seekers in Scotland who had claimed asylum to protect their daughters from female genital cutting (FGC), this article examines the workings of the culture of disbelief during asylum interviews. In this article I illustrate how the treatment of FGC-related asylum claims is informed by the convergence of hostile environment, gender and refugee stereotypes and the dominant representations of FGC. I argue that at the collision of anti-immigration and anti-FGC discourses, asylum seeking women are confronted with conflicting expectations whereby they are simultaneously expected to reinforce the constructions of themselves as victims of 'backward' cultural practices, and to narrate their vulnerability beyond cultural terms in order to meet the criteria for asylum outlined in the Refugee Convention. This paper illuminates the multiple strategies asylum interviewers employ to undermine women's lived experiences of persecution, revealing the contradictions in how interviewers simultaneously question the threat of FGC, women's inability to resist these practices and women's own experiences of being subject to FGC. Through this, I problematise the assumptions that FGC as an 'extreme' form of gender-based violence would offer an exception to refugee women's persistent struggles in being recognised as victims of persecution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite Australia's longstanding reputation as a multicultural nation, xenophobic and integrationist ideas remain embedded within political, media and public discourse surrounding migration, especially within discussions of Muslims and asylum seekers. Existing literature indicates that within arguments that oppose refugee resettlement in Australia, Islam is routinely constructed as incompatible with Australian society. Some research, however, has highlighted resistance to these ideas, yet few studies have explored how these narratives of resistance are constructed. This paper, presents a Critical Discourse Analysis of semi-structured interviews with 24 Western Australians who discussed their perspectives concerning asylum seekers. Participants who supported restrictive asylum policies reproduced integrationist attitudes toward Muslims, however those who expressed welcoming asylum views routinely challenged these ideas. I discuss the discursive and rhetorical features of these opposing takes on Australia's asylum debate, outlining some important implications for democracy and political communication, as well as for critical race analysis and sociological scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to explore Congolese refugees and asylum seekers' survival strategies in South Africa, the focus of this paper will be on the role of the social worker. The paper is part of the study that was conducted on Congolese refugees and asylum seekers in South Africa post-war or conflicts. The study employed a qualitative research method and a descriptive case study of 10 female Congolese refugees living in Yeoville, Johannesburg South Africa. The participants have lived in South African for less than five years and there were 30–40 years of age. Data were collected by means of one-on-one in-depth interviews in the form of semi-structured interviews. Purposive sampling and snowball sampling techniques were used in the selection of participants. Thematic content analysis was used in analyzing the data collected. The paper provides recommendations on what role can social workers play can in mental wellbeing interventions. This study also contributes to a better understanding of mental wellbeing issues of Congolese refugees and asylum seekers. Ethical approval for this research study was obtained from the Department of Social Work Human Research Ethics Committee (Non-medical) of the University of Witwatersrand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People who are seeking asylum often have lived experience of their personal boundaries and human rights being violated. For this reason, it is especially important that we consider the impact of boundaries in therapeutic work with this population. This paper explores work with a woman with a severe trauma history who was seeking asylum in England. Examples of perceived boundary crossings in the therapeutic relationship are examined. Considerations for other clinicians working with asylum seekers are discussed. These include: addressing socio-political factors; being sensitive to cultural differences; the importance of supervision and reflective practice; the personal impact of such work; and using critical thinking and warmth to manage boundaries rather than rigidly following rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Israeli teachers who teach Eritrean and Sudanese asylum-seeking children find themselves struggling to accommodate these children against the background of a polarized environment. The strategies teachers employ to cope with this tension are shaped by the broader socio-political context and the hostilities directed toward African asylum seekers in Israel. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 22 teachers in different schools in Israel, we observed that in the absence of any official educational policy for the integration, teachers employ strategies of avoidance and de-politicization of asylum seeking. We argue that when it comes to the controversies around asylum seekers, Israeli teachers adopt strategies that are similar to the ways they have coped with the long-term Israel-Palestinian conflict. Based on this observation, the paper suggests the local socio-political context is crucial in understanding teachers' attitudes, practices and responses towards asylum-seekers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Around the world, millions of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees encounter countless barriers to their movement and endure prolonged periods of waiting, resulting in frequent moments of immobility. This paper explores a paradox of experiences of mobility: how asylum seekers reconcile long-term future projects with immediate futures during moments of waiting. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork at the border between Mexico and Guatemala, I examine how asylum seekers balance their future projects within restrictive spatial–temporal contexts. I find that they actively inhabit spaces that they consider and wish to be transitory. Through particular tactics, they inhabit the meanwhile, while actively resisting to forego their future projects elsewhere. I analyse two sets of practices: place-making materialised in the construction of 'home' and temporal tactics to restore predictability and counter the uncertainty imposed by bureaucratic procedures. Inhabiting the meanwhile highlights asylum seekers' agency within restrictive spatial–temporal contexts and allows for future-making possibilities in a space of waiting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia is highly polarised about its treatment of refugees and asylum seekers, with the available literature indicating that public, political, and media discourse routinely constructs them as culturally incompatible with the broader society. These discourses present refugees and asylum seekers as undesirable 'others' and in turn, their deservingness of protection becomes contingent upon arbitrary notions of who gets to belong (and why). Rhetoric about what it means to be Australian pervade these discussions, however little is known about the various linguistic functions these ideas serve. This paper presents the findings arising from Critical Discourse Analysis of interviews with 24 Western Australians. Findings revealed that notions of 'Australian values' were regularly called upon to further arguments that both deny and advocate for the nation's acceptance of people seeking asylum. While some constructed 'Australian values' as incompatible with asylum seekers' cultural practices and beliefs, others asserted that open, compassionate, and charitable treatment of people seeking asylum is a key facet of 'being Australian'. Examined with consideration of the literature on Social Exclusivism and Cosmopolitan Acceptance, I discuss the discursive features of these contrasting ideas, emphasising key implications for both societal and scholarly understandings of Australia's ongoing asylum debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper develops the concept ofthresholdto explore the everyday experiences of asylum seekers in Germany. It investigates how residential accommodations used as asylum seekers’ camps function as border places within the national territory. It also adds to the theoretical debate on the creation of border places within national and urban territories in Europe, highlighting the existence of a plurality of camps as structures that produce the experience of confinement. This points to a fragmented border space within European territories and cities rather than external lines surrounding ‘Fortress Europe’. This paper draws on ethnographic work to show how, within the fragmented European border space, asylum seekers in Germany experience a predicament of confinement, focusing on everyday life in the residential accommodations (theWohnheime). Although these structures are open, the asylum seekers living inside perceive them as prisons due to the unnoticed symbolic violence that the spaces impose. This experience of confinement was grasped through three analytical dimensions—spatial, temporal and relational—; furthermore, this paper shows how it is reinforced by the legal system, specifically administrative law and legal status, as exemplified by theDuldung(rejected refugee status). This paper uses the concept ofthresholdintended as a condition of time suspension, non-belonging and in-betweenness to explore this multi-dimensional experience of confinement and how it affects asylum seekers’ sense of self. In the process, it argues that asylum seekers are ultimately relegated to athresholdof citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Refugees and asylum seekers have become increasingly demonised as part of anti-migrant sentiment leading to social exclusion. Sport has been utilised as a tool for social cohesion though evidence as to its efficacy in such a task is limited. Based on a three-year research programme exploring the role of football in the lives of refugees and asylum seekers in the U.K., this paper examines the concept of belonging, provides evidence for the role of community-based sport in social development and concludes with a call for practitioners to maximise their belief in concrete utopian ideals without losing the inherent critical approach needed to positively develop the industry in which they work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of governmental management of the pandemic on the morbidity and mortality of migrants, gendered and racialized groups by focussing on the relation of its public health message campaign to accommodation, health and survival. The Hostile Environment immigration policies have restricted the ability of these groups to adhere to Government's public health guidelines, increasing risks of their contracting coronavirus. These policies exacerbate existing health inequalities in intersectional ways. The Covid virus, in its socially reproductive capacity, can thus be understood as a biological descriptor for a political crisis of intersectional inequality in the politics of health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that governing parties can use privatization as a political discipline mechanism to reward core constituents and swing voters by diverting unwanted social and economic costs to other places. This is tested by analysing the dispersal of asylum seekers across English local authorities before and after the Conservative Party-led privatization of the dispersal system in 2011. The findings suggest that asylum dispersals to Labour Party 'core' constituencies increased following privatization, but that dispersals to 'swing' districts were unchanged. Dispersals to places with high institutional capacity decreased, despite contractors being expected to settle asylum seekers in such areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Who is the ‘queer refugee’? How do we manage their feelings, emotions and experiences when assessing or supporting their claims for asylum? In contemporary refugee decision-making and litigation, numerous challenges arise when discerning what constitutes a ‘well-founded fear’ of persecution for a clearly defined ‘particular social group’. Specifically, fact-finding and credibility assessment in this area of law reinforces stereotypical assumptions about sexual citizenship, public persecution, fixed identity and immutable erotic desire. An inherent (functioning) sexuality or an essentialist gender identity must be causally related to serious incidents of state sanctioned harm. In doing so, the refugee status-determination process privileges the emotional attachments of decision-makers while occluding the emotional narratives and identities of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer asylum seekers. Responding to these legal and administrative tensions, using case studies from Australia and contrasting them with developments in Europe, this paper uses emotion as a focal point to think about how adjudicators can accommodate disparate cultural differences and experiences in refugee law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent law changes in New Zealand allowing for the detention of a "mass arrival" of asylum seekers reflect a concerning international rhetoric and associated policy trend in Australia and the United Kingdom towards those seeking asylum. This paper argues that, although the New Zealand public has not (yet) reached a "moral panic" that is prevalent within international contexts, there are concerns about a "culture of indifference" in relation to asylum seekers. By providing a policy analysis about asylum seekers and an examination on the associated discourses utilised in international contexts, this discussion presents the New Zealand context through the process of risk signification. The paper discusses how the social work profession can respond to this culture of indifference through addressing collusion (often through silence) with oppressive asylum policies, the need for stronger advocacy and action, and the associated role of social work education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For almost two decades, negative portrayals of asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat have been dominant within political and media discourses. In particular, asylum seekers have been portrayed as a “dangerous other”—as an illegal group that the public ought to fear and from which they require protection—rather than as a vulnerable group who require protection themselves. This article examines some of the ways in which these discourses make possible public support for punitive policies relating to the treatment of asylum seekers (particularly boat arrivals)—policies that violate many of the human rights instruments to which Australia is a signatory. Specifically, this paper uses Sykes and Matza’s (1957) work on “Techniques of Neutralisation”, which considers the way in which those who knowingly commit illegal, immoral, or harmful acts neutralise their behaviour and disavow its harmful effects, to analyse these dynamics. In particular, it focuses on the political and media discourses regarding asylum seeking produced during the 2013 Australian federal election campaign. The paper argues that these theoretical tools can be effectively applied to this case study and provide some insight into the ongoing punitive treatment of asylum seekers in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite offering some protection for refugees, realpolitik in international affairs ensures that the paradigm of human security remains aspirational rather than practical. This paper begins by providing a brief snapshot of the current global refugee crisis, encompassing multiple local crises in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and Latin America. It next details the international community’s response to these crises, highlighting the punitive policies used by the Australian government and the European Union (EU) to impede the asylum process. Lastly, the paper will assess whether the framework of human security can support the right to asylum, a right that is enshrined in international law. Following a brief introduction to the concept of human security, the paper will explore its strengths and limitations, examining whether it offers a complementary source of protection to the right to asylum in the face of eroding refugee rights. I argue that human security is a useful but imperfect framework for protecting refugee rights. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Lived citizenship has emerged as a key concept in citizenship studies over the last two decades. A growing number of authors have applied ideas of lived citizenship as a generative approach to recognise the embodied, relational and lived experiences of being a citizen in everyday life. However, lived citizenship currently lacks conceptual clarity and framing which weakens its analytical power and potential. In this paper we consider the theoretical origins, current applications and development of lived citizenship in order to clarify it as a concept and consider possibilities for its future. We propose a conceptual framing underpinned by four dimensions of lived citizenship (spatial, intersubjective, performed and affective) to serve as a starting point to sharpen and define this emerging field. We then explore these dimensions through three domains of scholarship, of children and youth, asylum seekers, and city-regional dwellers to illustrate the potential of a lived citizenship approach. We conclude by examining some of the implications of this concept as well as its limitations, with the aim of opening a dialogue with inter-disciplinary scholars to help us to further conceptualise this emerging field and widen its future possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of European Journal of Social Work is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper I argue that we should not frame the debate over whether or not we have duties to help refugees in terms of duties of rescue. This way of framing the issue, where Western states are depicted as rescuing refugees from harms unconnected to them, does not adequately represent the reality experienced by refugees in the 21 st century. I suggest that we need a framework that includes the secondary harms experienced by refugees as they try to seek refuge in camps, urban spaces and via asylum. These secondary harms constitute serious violations of human rights and prevent refugees from accessing the minimum conditions of human dignity. As a result, the rescue metaphor is inappropriate and, perhaps more importantly, prevents us from having a proper debate about the obligations of states in general, and Western states in particular, to refugees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Group therapy is a useful form of intervention for individuals with histories of extreme trauma. This paper will discuss the relevance of group interventions with refugees and asylum seekers who have suffered persecution and trauma in their home countries. Using case examples, this paper will illustrate how groups can provide an environment in which members can begin to work through past traumatic experiences and begin the process of finding a home in the UK, within a context of continued uncertainty and threat. The central principles of group analytic psychotherapy and how these can be applied and adapted to meet the needs of this specific group will be explored. Key issues, including working with an interpreter, cultural factors and dealing with high levels of vulnerability and dependency, will be discussed. The complex boundary issues arising from needing to intervene with practical issues outside the group therapy process will be considered. The paper will also explore the impact of this work on the group facilitators and ways in which this can be managed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]