Detention-as-spectacle

Using a combination of migration studies, political sociology, and policy studies, this paper explores the contradictions and violence of immigration detention, its architectures, and its audiences. The concept of “detention-as-spectacle” is developed to make sense of detention’s hypervisible and obscured manifestations in the European Union. We focus particularly on two case studies, the United Kingdom and Malta, which occupy different geopolitical positions within the EU. Detention-as-spectacle demonstrates that detention is less related to deterrence and security than to displaying sovereign enforcement, control, and power. A central aspect of the sovereign spectacle is detention’s purported ability to order and even halt “crises” of irregular immigration, while simultaneously creating and reinforcing these crises. The paper concludes by examining recent disruptions to the spectacle, and their implications

Questions over alternatives to detention programmes

Alternative to detention programmes may be less restrictive and less expensive than formal detention but they may still have drawbacks. The provision of competent legal advice appears to be key to low rates of absconding

“Imposter-Children” in the UK Refugee Status Determination Process

This article describes and analyzes an emerging problematic in the asylum and immigration debate, which I cynically dub the “imposter-child” phenomenon. My preliminary exploration maps how the imposter-child relates to and potentially influences the politics and practices of refuge status determination in the United Kingdom. I argue that the “imposter-child” is being discursively constructed in order to justify popular and official suspicion of spontaneously arriving child asylum-seekers in favour of resettling refugees from camps abroad. I also draw connections between the discursive creation of “imposter-children” and the diminishment of welfare safeguarding for young people. Further complicating this situation is a variety of sociocultural factors in both Afghanistan and the United Kingdom, including the adversarial UK refugee status determination process, uncertainty around how the United Kingdom can“prove” an age, and a form of “triple discrimination” experienced by Afghan male youth. Through unearthing why the “imposter-child” is problematic, I also query why it is normatively accepted that non-citizens no longer deserve protection from the harshest enforcement once they “age out” of minor status.Cet article décrit et analyse une problématique émergente dans le débat sur l’asile et l’immigration, que je dénomme d’une façon cynique le phénomène des «enfants-imposteurs ». Mes explorations préliminaires démarquent comment «l’enfant imposteur» est relié aux politiques et pratiques de détermination du statut de réfugié au Royaume-Uni, et comment il les influence potentiellement.Je soutiens que l’enfant-imposteur est constitué comme discours afin de justifier la méfiance populiste ainsi qu’officielle à l’égard des chercheurs d’asiles qui sont issus des arrivées spontanées, pour favoriser plutôt la réinstallation de réfugiés arrivant de camps à l’étranger. Je trace égale- ment des liens entre la création discursive de ces « enfants- imposteurs» et la réduction des aides sociales publiques pour les jeunes personnes. Cette situation est rendue encore plus compliquée par divers facteurs socioculturels en Afghanistan ainsi qu’au Royaume-Uni, dont notamment le processus antagoniste de détermination du statut de réfugié au Royaume-Uni (DSR), l’incertitude autour de la «preuve» d’âge dans le pays, et une forme de «triple discrimination» subie par les jeunes Afghans de sexe masculin. En faisant ressortir les raisons pour lesquelles l’enfant-imposteur est problématique, j’interroge égale- ment pourquoi il est normativement acceptable que les non-citoyens ne méritent plus d’être protégés des activités coercitives et d’exécution de règlements les plus sévères une fois qu’ils ont dépassé « l’âge limite » de statut de mineur

Internment in the United Kingdom During the Twentieth Century and Its Links to the Evolution of Immigration Detention

Immigration detention is cementing into a permanent aspect of border and immigration control in the United Kingdom. This article uses a historical examination of internment to contribute to a larger literature that unsettles the official record of detention policy as a natural development in an otherwise functioning immigration and border control bureaucracy. In so doing, I present an original overview of the First World War, Second World War, and Gulf War internments. My research findings demonstrate that wartime powers legislated in times of national distress have been repackaged as seemingly quotidian tools of immigration and asylum control. The results of this normalisation have included the reinforcement of a false logic of differentiation between citizens and threats, and between "good" and "bad" migrants; and an instrumentalisation of national insecurity to curtail the movements and basic rights of all individuals

In the Wake of Irregular Arrivals: Changes to the Canadian Immigration Detention System

This article seeks to address the policies, practices, and conditions of immigration detention in Canada. The article surveys detention worldwide, its promulgation in Canada, and changes ushered in via 2012 policy innovations. Focusing on mandatory detention and its relationship to the Designated Countries of Origin policy, the article also demonstrates the disproportionality of the Canadian government’s response to recent arrivals of people migrating by boat. The article emphasizes the dangers of establishing mandatory detention provisions and questions the justifications provided by defenders of the policies.Cet article examine les politiques, les pratiques et les condi- tions de détention liée à l’immigration au Canada. Après un survol des différentes pratiques de détention dans le monde, on y examine son établissement au Canada ainsi que ses transformations dans le cours du renouvellement des politiques en 2012. En se concentrant sur la détention obligatoire et ses liens avec la politique des Pays d’origine désignés (POD), l’article nous démontre le caractère disproportionné de la réponse du gouvernement canadien à l’arrivée récente d’immigrants par bateau. Cet article fait ressortir les dangers d’établir des dispositions de détention obligatoire, et remet en question les justifications dévelop- pées par les tenants de ces politiques

Restoring identity: The use of religion as a mechanism to transition between an identity of sexual offending to a non-offending identity

This study examines the unique experience of participants who during their reintegration back into the community, following a conviction for sexual offending, re-engaged with religious and spiritual communities. To explore meaning Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was adopted. Four in-depth interviews of men convicted for sexual crimes were undertaken and analysed. Findings indicate that through religious affiliation participants were: exposed to new prosocial networks; provided opportunities to seek forgiveness; felt a sense of belonging and affiliation; and were psychologically comforted. However, the study also found that the process of identity transition from ‘offender’ to ‘non-offender’ was not seamless or straightforward for those with an innate sexual deviancy towards children, caution is therefore advised

Crimmigration and Refugees: Bridging Visas, Criminal Cancellations and ‘Living in the Community’ as Punishment and Deterrence

Australia’s status as the only state with a policy of mandatory indefinite detention of all unlawful non-citizens, including asylum seekers, who are within Australian territory is a fact that is both well-known and frequently cited. From its inception, mandatory immigration detention was touted as ‘the method of deterrence for those seeking asylum onshore’ and since then ‘mandatory detention has been at the forefront of a deterrence as control and control as deterrence discourse’2. The imagined subjects of deterrence are frequently asylum seekers presented as ‘bogus’ or as economic migrants, and the sites for control are Australia’s ‘immigration program’ and borders. While these dual factors have animated the implementation and continuation of the policy for over 25 years, the contemporary practice and enforcement of detention in Australia presents a much more complex picture

SERPINB3 (SCCA1) inhibits cathepsin L and lysoptosis, protecting cervical cancer cells from chemoradiation

The endogenous lysosomal cysteine protease inhibitor SERPINB3 (squamous cell carcinoma antigen 1, SCCA1) is elevated in patients with cervical cancer and other malignancies. High serum SERPINB3 is prognostic for recurrence and death following chemoradiation therapy. Cervical cancer cells genetically lacking SERPINB3 are more sensitive to ionizing radiation (IR), suggesting this protease inhibitor plays a role in therapeutic response. Here we demonstrate that SERPINB3-deficient cells have enhanced sensitivity to IR-induced cell death. Knock out of SERPINB3 sensitizes cells to a greater extent than cisplatin, the current standard of care. IR in SERPINB3 deficient cervical carcinoma cells induces predominantly necrotic cell death, with biochemical and cellular features of lysoptosis. Rescue with wild-type SERPINB3 or a reactive site loop mutant indicates that protease inhibitory activity is required to protect cervical tumor cells from radiation-induced death. Transcriptomics analysis of primary cervix tumor samples and genetic knock out demonstrates a role for the lysosomal protease cathepsin L in radiation-induced cell death in SERPINB3 knock-out cells. These data support targeting of SERPINB3 and lysoptosis to treat radioresistant cervical cancers