Governmental mobility : the power effects of the movement of detained asylum seekers around Britain's detention estate.

Gill, Nicholas (2009) Governmental mobility : the power effects of the movement of detained asylum seekers around Britain's detention estate. Political Geography, 28 (3). pp. 186-196. ISSN 0962-6298

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Abstract

This paper explores the ways in which mobility can have governmental effects in the context of the management of asylum seekers awaiting deportation from the UK. Drawing upon the case of Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre, a facility for the incarceration of immigration deportees near Oxford, the paper makes the case that the way asylum seekers are moved between detention centres within the UK has implications for the way they are represented to both asylum activists and asylum sector employees, causing them to choose to use their influence differently by with-holding the support that they might otherwise provide. The constant moving and repositioning of asylum seekers means that they are depicted as transitory, fleeting and depersonalised to those actors with the greatest degree of influence over them. The subjection not only of asylum seekers through forceful, blunt forms of power, but also of more powerful asylum sector actors through subtler, governmental techniques, has significant material implications for the incarcerated asylum seeking community that populates Britain's detention estate.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Political Geography
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1200/1202
Subjects:
?? mobilitygovernmentalityasylum seekersdetentionremoval centresincarcerationhistorysociology and political sciencegeography, planning and developmentg geography (general) ??
ID Code:
28080
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
06 Nov 2009 16:15
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
16 Mar 2024 00:33