(In)coherent subjects? The politics of conceptualising resistance in the UK asylum system

Sarah M Hughes

doi:10.1177/23996544211033872

Abstract

Many accounts of resistance within systems of migration control pivot upon a coherent migrant subject, one that is imbued with political agency and posited as oppositional to particular forms of sovereign power. Drawing upon ethnographic research into the role of creativity within the UK asylum system, I argue that grounding resistance with a stable, coherent and agentic subject, aligns with oppositional narratives (of power vs resistance), and thereby risks negating the entangled politics of the (in)coherence of subject formation, and how this can contain the potential to disrupt, disturb or interrupt the practices and premise of the UK asylum system. I suggest that charity groups and subjects should not be written out of narratives of resistance apriori because they engage with ‘the state’: firstly, because to argue that there is a particular form that resistance should take is to place limits around what counts as the political; and secondly, because to ‘remain oppositional’ is at odds with an (in)coherent subject. I show how accounts which highlight a messy and ambiguous subjectivity, could be bought into understandings of resistance. This is important because as academics, we too participate in the delineation of the political and what counts as resistance. In predetermining what subjects, and forms of political action count as resistance we risk denying recognition to those within this system.

Highlights

To bear witness to the contemporary moment of asylumpolitics, is to acknowledge both a proliferation and geographical expansion of increasingly violent practices of border control
This paper is based upon research I conducted between 2014–2016 into creativity and resistance within the UK asylum system, and included work with dispersed asylum seekers, detainees and collaborative music workshops
The number of detainees incarcerated within Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) is comparably small, the daily interactions and, close proximately of detainees and staff within IRCs make this aspect of the UK asylum system pertinent to examine in this paper (Bosworth, 2014)

Summary

Introduction

To bear witness to the contemporary moment of asylum (geo)politics, is to acknowledge both a proliferation and geographical expansion of increasingly violent practices of border control. In dispersing the spaces of the border throughout everyday life, the hostile environment paradoxically increases the moral and physical distancing that Gill (2016) explores between those responsible for legal decisions over who has the “right” to stay in the UK and those their actions impact upon This is in part because it forces those untrained in immigration policy to act as border guards, opening space for racist behaviour and punishing those who do not check an individual’s status with heavy fines. The UK Government’s active hostility towards migrants has resulted in some public outcry, together with the growth and development of activist groups and charities This is in addition to the numerous third sector groups around the UK that support and campaign for the rights of asylum seekers and immigration detainees (e.g. City of Sanctuary, and Detention Action). My argument in this paper is that these accounts, which highlight a contingent subjectivity, should be bought into understandings of resistance

Methodology

Conclusions