Paper details

Paper authors	Kahina Le Louvier
In panel on	Borders and Subjectivities: Imagination, bodies, and political experiences
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

In this paper, we explore how the United Kingdom’s (UK) immigration policies build on specific imaginaries of the border to control the bodies of those who want to enter, both outside and inside the country. We explore these issues using extensive qualitative interviews with individuals who have sought asylum in the UK, as well as first-line practitioners and policymakers, conducted as part of the EU funded H2020 PERCEPTIONS project.
Based on these interviews, we analyse the various tactics used by the UK government to draw borders around those deemed “unwanted”, including plans of using nets to prevent individuals crossing the English Channel, using army barracks as asylum accommodation, keeping people without status for years and preventing them from accessing basic rights and needs, or using social media to circulate information campaigns aimed at deterring migrants from coming. In particular, we focus on the epistemological, spatial and temporal modalities through which these bordering policies are embedded. This allows us to highlight their effect on migrants’ sense of identity and agency, and how they come into conflict with their own imaginaries of the UK border as a crossing towards safety to a democratic country where their human rights can be protected.

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