Dissonant belongings: The evolving spatial identities of young Muslim men in the UK

Since 2001, a number of controversial and sometimes violent events in the UK and elsewhere have raised anxieties around British Muslim male identities. The problematisation of those identities is now framed around the supposed conflict between Britishness and Muslim-ness. Yet these discourses of the belonging of young Muslim identities often underplay or fail to consider the increasing importance of local, British spaces in ethnically diverse towns and cities, shaping and creating new dynamics of identification. This study draws upon extensive ethnographic research and mobile interviews to provide a comprehensive study of these evolving spatial identities of British young Muslim men. It uses Birmingham as a case study area, a city in which more than a fifth of the population describe themselves as holding to a Muslim faith. The study contrasts how the everyday experiences that underpin Muslim identity stand in stark contrast to less tangible notions of Britishness. The article concludes by positing that young Muslim male identities are characterised by a dissonance between the emotional place-belongingness that evokes for them a sense of inclusion, and the politics of belonging that marks out their exclusion

An environmental health assessment of the new migrant camp in Calais

This study constitutes the first independent scientific study of the new Calais migrant camp. The findings confirm that migrants in the informal camp are living in perilous conditions, which are significantly contributing to their ill-health and injury. Furthermore, the shortcomings in shelter, food and water safety, personal hygiene, sanitation and security are likely to have detrimental long-term health consequences for the camp’s residents over their lifecourse. It is our assessment that the situation in Calais amounts to a humanitarian crisis and requires far greater resource than has been provided to date by state agencies to protect migrants in the camp. Conditions in the camp do not meet standards recommended by UNHCR, WHO or the Sphere project

Liberal Violence and the Racial Borders of the European Union

This paper examines how racial violence underpins the European Union’s border regime. Drawing on two case studies, in northern France and the Balkans, we explore how border violence manifests in divergent ways: from the direct physical violence which is routine in Croatia, to more subtle forms of violence evident in the governance of migrants and refugees living informally in Calais, closer to Europe’s geopolitical centre. The use of violence against people on the move sits uncomfortably with the liberal, post‐racial self‐image of the European Union. Drawing upon the work of postcolonial scholars and theories of violence, we argue that the various violent technologies used by EU states against migrants embodies the inherent logics of liberal governance, whilst also reproducing liberalism’s tendency to overlook its racial limitations. By interrogating how and why border violence manifests we draw critical attention to the racialised ideologies within which it is predicated. This paper characterises the EU border regime as a form of “liberal violence” that seeks to elide both its violent nature and its racial underpinnings

Urban Landscapes and the Atmosphere of Place: Exploring Subjective Experience in the Study of Urban Form

Urban landscapes are produced through the combination of material forms and subjective human experience. Drawing on the concept of atmosphere, we argue that human experience of urban spaces drives alterations to the built environment, making it critical that these are studied in tandem. Atmosphere is created through the combination of human activity, individual emotional responses and subjective perceptions of built forms. Though unique to the individual, it can also create a shared feeling of place. Drawing on ethnographic methods to examine people's experience of the Balsall Heath district in Birmingham, UK, a series of examples is used to illustrate how the interrelationship of subjective experience and built forms creates different atmospheres within the neighbourhood. These, and the desire to alter them, are in turn driving morphological change

The Politics of Injury:Debilitation and the Right to Maim at the EU Border

Borders are sites of mass injury. This article questions the necro-consensus that has emerged within migration studies, and explores the political role that less-than-deadly violence plays at contemporary borders. By withholding from outright killing, and thus avoiding the optics of public scrutiny, EU states are deploying a carefully calibrated politics of injury designed to control racialised groups through debilitation. The injuries produced through this border regime—typified by illegal ‘pushbacks’ and deplorable camp conditions—exist beneath a threshold of liberal acceptability. In short, EU states routinely deny the right to asylum by imposing the ‘right to maim’ (Puar 2017). This article draws upon long-term research along the ‘Balkan Route’ in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, including interviews with medics, activists, EU officials, and people on the move, as well as analysis of a large border violence database. We argue that mass injury has become a politically tolerated form of violence that perversely provides the EU with the illusory conceit of humanitarian “care”. In dialogue with postcolonial scholarship that has questioned the centrality of death within biopolitics, we assert the importance of interrogating not only the necropolitical logics of migration policy (i.e death), but also the politics of non-lethal violence: the strategic and attenuated delivery of injury, maiming, and incapacitation that shapes contemporary borders. Contributing to geographies of violence and critical border studies, we suggest that greater attention is needed towards less-than-deadly harms that underpin contemporary political geographies

Public health in the Calais refugee camp: environment, health and exclusion

The ongoing emergency for refugees is having profound and hidden health consequences for thousands of displaced persons who live in informal ‘makeshift’ camps across Europe. This interdisciplinary paper reports the results of the first environmental health assessment in such a location, in what was Europe’s largest informal refugee camp in 2016, in Calais, northern France. We detail the lack of facilities for sanitation, safe provision of food, water and shelter, demonstrating how conditions fall short of agreed international standards for formal refugee camps. Rather than the notion of migrants being the cause of health problems, this paper critically reveals the hidden materiality of bodily injury caused by poor health conditions, where the camp itself produces harm. Drawing upon theories of biopolitical exclusion, the paper concludes by (i) emphasising the empirical and conceptual themes that tie refugee politics and biologies together and (ii) makes a call for increased attention to makeshift camps as key sites of health exclusion in Europe and beyond

Violência liberal e a fronteira racial da União Europeia

This paper examines how racial violence underpins the European Union’s border regime. Drawing on two case studies, in northern France and the Balkans, we explore how border violence manifests in divergent ways: from the direct physical vio-lence which is routine in Croatia, to more subtle forms of violence evident in the gover-nance of migrants and refugees living informally in Calais, closer to Europe’s geopolitical centre. The use of violence against people on the move sits uncomfortably with the lib-eral, post-racial self-image of the European Union. Drawing upon the work of postcolo-nial scholars and theories of violence, we argue that the various violent technologies used by EU states against migrants embodies the inherent logics of liberal governance, whilst also reproducing liberalism’s tendency to overlook its racial limitations. By interro-gating how and why border violence manifests we draw critical attention to the racia-lised ideologies within which it is predicated. This paper characterises the EU border regime as a form of “liberal violence” that seeks to elide both its violent nature and its racial underpinnings.Este artículo examina cómo la violencia racial sustenta el régimen de fronteras de la Unión Europea. A través de dos estudios de caso, en el norte de Francia y en la región de los Balcanes, exploramos cómo la violencia fronteriza se manifiesta de formas divergentes: desde la violencia física directa que es rutinaria en Croacia, hasta formas más sutiles de violencia evidentes en la gobernanza de los migrantes y refugiados que viven informalmente en Calais, más cerca del centro geopolítico europeo. El uso de la violencia contra las personas en situaciones transitorias contradice la imagen liberal y postracial de la UE. Basándonos en el trabajo de los investigadores poscoloniales y en las teorías de la violencia, argumentamos que las diversas tecnologías de la violencia utilizadas por las naciones de la UE contra los inmigrantes encarnan la lógica inherente a la gobernanza liberal, al tiempo que reproducen la tendencia del liberalismo a descuidar sus limitaciones raciales. Al cuestionar cómo y por qué se manifiesta la violencia fronteriza, dirigimos nuestra atención crítica a las ideologías racistas en las que se basa la violencia. Este artículo caracteriza el régimen fronterizo de la UE como una forma de “violencia liberal” que pretende omitir tanto la naturaleza de la violencia como su base racial.Este artigo examina como a violência racial sustenta o regime de fronteiras da União Europeia. Por meio de dois estudos de caso, no norte da França e na região dos Balcãs, exploramos como a violência de fronteira se manifesta de formas divergentes: desde a violência física direta que é rotina na Croácia, até formas mais sutis de violência evidentes na governança de migrantes e refugiados vivendo informalmente em Calais, mais próximos do centro geopolítico europeu. O uso da violência contra pessoas em situações transitórias entra em contradição com a autoimagem liberal, pós-racial, da UE. Recorrendo ao trabalho de pesquisadores pós-coloniais e a teorias da violência, argumentamos que as várias tecnologias de violência utilizadas pelas nações da UE contra migrantes incorporam a lógica inerente da governança liberal, enquanto também reproduzem a tendência do liberalismo de negligenciar suas limitações raciais. Por meio de questionamentos sobre como e por que a violência de fronteira se manifesta, voltamos a atenção crítica para as ideologias racistas dentro das quais a violência é predicada. Este artigo caracteriza o regime de fronteira da UE como uma forma de “violência liberal” que busca omitir tanto a natureza da violência quanto suas bases raciais

Brexit writings and the war of position over migration, 'race' and class

This timely series of interventions scrutinises the centrality of race and migration to the 2016 Brexit campaign, vote and its aftermath. It brings together five individual pieces, with an accompanying introduction, which interrogate different facets of how race, migration and Brexit interconnect: an examination of the so called 'left behinds' and the fundamental intersections between geography, race and class at the heart of Brexit motivations and contexts; an exploration of arguably parallel and similarly complex developments in the US with the rise of populism and support for Donald Trump; an analysis of the role of whiteness in the experiences of East European nationals in the UK in the face of increased anti-foreigner sentiment and uncertainty about future status; a discussion of intergenerational differences in outlooks on race and immigration and the sidelining of different people and places in Brexit debates; and a studied critique of prevailing tropes about Brexit which create divisive classed and raced categories and seek to oversimplify broader understandings of race, class and migration. Taken together these articles, all arguing for the need to eschew easy answers and superficial narratives, offer important and opportune insights into what Brexit tells us about race and migration in contemporary UK

Tainted citizens: the securitised identities of young Muslim men in Birmingham

In the last two decades, following the Rushdie affair and the emergence of Islamic extremism as a security issue in the UK, there has been a surge of interest in British Muslim communities from academics, politicians and popular commentators. Discourses of Muslims as ‘others’ and as potentially risky citizens have been reinforced by government approaches to counter-terrorism, chiefly the Prevent programme aimed at preventing radicalisation of young Muslims. Moreover their loyalty and place in British society has been questioned. Yet there remains a disconnect between the treatment of young Muslim men as ‘tainted citizens’ and the reality of their history and their everyday lives. This thesis seeks to explore the identities of young Muslim men in the city of Birmingham and contrast it with the way their identities have been scrutinised through the lens of risk as part of the counter-terror agenda. In particular it investigates the impacts of the Prevent agenda and the surveillance scheme called ‘Project Champion’, both of which had significant implications for Muslim identity and its governance in the city. The thesis demonstrates how these governance processes have resulted in the securitisation of Muslim identities in the city