Dispersal of asylum seekers and processes of social exclusion in England

This thesis investigates the compulsory dispersal of asylum seekers introduced following the Immigration & Asylum Act 1999. This policy was formulated in an environment of mistrust towards asylum seekers had an explicit deterrence element and was the first time refugees without secure status were dispersed across the UK. This thesis examines the formal and informal social exclusion inherent in this system and the specific impacts on the ability of asylum seekers to access services and maintain or create social networks. These were investigated in order to explore the sense of 'belonging', 'inclusion' and longer term effects on the process of resettlement for those awarded refugee status. The main methods used were qualitative combined with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software to provide a spatial analysis of dispersal. Field research carried out between November 2002 and February 2005 consisted of in-depth interviews, focus groups and participant observation with asylum seekers, refugees and key informants in three dispersal locations. Interviews were also conducted with policy makers and other key informants in London. A range of published and unpublished secondary sources have been utilised. A key finding was that multiple forms of social exclusion of asylum seekers exist. These different forms relate to the declining entitlements of asylum seekers as well as the geography, structure and process of the National Asylum Support Service (NASS) system. A significant relationship between dispersalocations and areas of deprivation combined with the tensions of the structure and process of implementing dispersal results in a system that maintains asylum seekers in a state of limbo or liminality. It was found that the system offers limited space available for the restoration of social trust and virtually no space for the restoration of political or institutional trust. It is concluded that the primary lens for understanding the experiences of social exclusion of asylum seekers throughout dispersal is policy-imposed liminality and that resistance to liminality is the way in which asylum seekers begin to acquire a sense of 'belonging' or 'inclusion'

The X-ray Transient XTE J2012+381

We present optical and infrared observations of the soft X-ray transient (SXT) XTE J2012+381 and identify the optical counterpart with a faint red star heavily blended with a brighter foreground star. The fainter star is coincident with the radio counterpart and appears to show weak H alpha emission and to have faded between observations. The RXTE/ASM lightcurve of XTE J2012+381 is unusual for an SXT in that after an extended linear decay, it settled into a plateau state for about 40 days before undergoing a weak mini-outburst. We discuss the nature of the object and suggest similarities to long orbital period SXTs.Comment: 5 pages, 7 postscript figures included, uses mn.sty. Accepted for publication in MNRA

The 1996 outburst of GRO J1655-40: disc irradiation and enhanced mass transfer

We show that the 1996 outburst of the X-ray binary transient system GRO J1655-40 can be explained by the standard dwarf-nova type disc instability, followed by an episode of enhanced mass transfer from the secondary if the mass transfer rate in GRO J1655-40 is within a factor < 10 of the stability limit. We argue that irradiation of the secondary during the onset of the outburst driven by the thermal instability in the outer disc can increase the mass transfer rate above the minimum value required for stable accretion. This will then produce the period of near-constant X-ray emission seen in this system. This scenario can also explain the observed anti-correlation between the optical and X-ray fluxes. It is generally accepted that optical emission in low-mass X-ray binaries is produced by irradiation of the outer disc by X-rays. There is also strong circumstantial evidence that in order for the outer disc to see the irradiating flux, it must be warped. Depending on the warp propagation mechanism, either a burst of mass from the secondary or viscous decay are likely to decrease the degree of warping, thereby causing the decrease in the observed optical flux while the X-ray flux remains constant or even increases, exactly as observed in GRO J1655-40. Finally, the decrease of the disc warping and, therefore, irradiation will cause the disc to become unstable once again, terminating the outburst.Comment: Astronomy and Astrophysics - in pres

Langevin Equation for the Rayleigh model with finite-ranged interactions

Both linear and nonlinear Langevin equations are derived directly from the Liouville equation for an exactly solvable model consisting of a Brownian particle of mass $M$ interacting with ideal gas molecules of mass $m$ via a quadratic repulsive potential. Explicit microscopic expressions for all kinetic coefficients appearing in these equations are presented. It is shown that the range of applicability of the Langevin equation, as well as statistical properties of random force, may depend not only on the mass ratio $m/M$ but also by the parameter $Nm/M$, involving the average number $N$ of molecules in the interaction zone around the particle. For the case of a short-ranged potential, when $N\ll 1$, analysis of the Langevin equations yields previously obtained results for a hard-wall potential in which only binary collisions are considered. For the finite-ranged potential, when multiple collisions are important ($N\gg 1$), the model describes nontrivial dynamics on time scales that are on the order of the collision time, a regime that is usually beyond the scope of more phenomenological models.Comment: 21 pages, 1 figure. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Doppler Tomography of XTE J2123-058 and Other Neutron Star LMXBs

We describe Doppler tomography obtained in the 1998 outburst of the neutron star low mass X-ray binary (LMXB) XTE J2123-058. This analysis, and other aspects of phase-resolved spectroscopy, indicate similarities to SW Sex systems, except that anomalous emission kinematics are seen in HeII, whilst phase 0.5 absorption is confined to H alpha. This separation of these effects may provide tighter constraints on models in the LMXB case than is possible for SW Sex systems. We will compare results for other LMXBs which appear to show similar kinematics and discuss how models for the SW Sex phenomenon can be adapted to these systems. Finally we will summarise the limited Doppler tomography performed on the class of neutron star LMXBs as a whole, and discuss whether any common patterns can yet be identified.Comment: 8 pages, 5 postscript figures. To appear in Proceedings of Astro-Tomography Workshop, Brussels, July 2000, Eds. H. Boffin, D. Steeghs, Springer-Verlag Lecture Notes in Physic