Immigration Detention Research Articles

Immigration detention in Australia: the constitutional incompatibility of the Migration Act’s definition and its practical implications

ABSTRACT This article examines the constitutional validity of s 5(1) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth), which includes prisons and remand centres as facilities for immigration detention. It argues that this statutory definition is arguably unconstitutional because it conflates the non-punitive purpose of immigration detention with the inherently punitive nature of imprisonment. The article further explores the High Court’s jurisprudence on the matter, the principles of punitive and non-punitive detention, and the implications for the rule of law and individual rights.

Murdered and missing: description, art, and human rights

AbstractThe aim of the article is to explore how describing works of art and artistic practices enables a deeper understanding of the political dimensions and effects of art. Drawing on visual and documentary analysis, the article explores two artworks: Azúcar Rabiosa (‘Rabid Sugar’) (2018) by Cerrucha which addresses the justice system’s inaction regarding femicides and transfemicides in Mexico and Remain (2018) by Hoda Afshar, which documents the experiences of a group of stateless men who were left to languish when the Australian government closed its offshore immigration detention centre. Two key arguments emerge. First, making visible through description different aspects of artistic objects and practices helps account for what these artworks do politically. Second, taking description seriously enables us to understand how these artworks make claims to human rights.

Investigating whether offshore immigration detention and processing are associated with an increased likelihood of psychological disorders.

Immigration policies designed to deter people from seeking asylum are gaining traction in many Western nations, with the UK recently attempting to establish an offshore immigration processing centre in Rwanda. This letter outlines emerging evidence from Australia on the negative long-term psychological effects of offshore processing on people seeking asylum.

The Discretionary Power of Street‐Level Bureaucrats From the Perspective of Illusio

ABSTRACTInterrogating the tension between care and control in the work of social services staff in Belgian immigration detention centres, this article sheds light on the uses of discretion from the perspective of Bourdieu's concept of illusio. I argue that social services staff's use of discretionary power must be understood at the crossroads of their belief in their professional ethos and the power relations within these centres, which enabled them to frame the element of control as something they had to deal with professionally, rather than something to which they contributed. This sheds light on both the uses of discretion as well as on the articulation of care and control in border humanitarianism.

Punitive Subjectivities and Emotions in Immigration Detention

In immigration detention centres, emotions run high; tensions, conflicts, anxiety, and affection occur amid bureaucratic procedures, paperwork, files, lists of people, systematisation of cases, buses that come and go with detainees, and people who will be deported. Although immigration detention belongs to administrative law, in practice, detention centres operate closer to penal detention. Little is known about the operation of these places in Mexico, including how punishment takes place in daily practice. Even less is known about the people who work there, especially the rationale and emotions behind their daily decisions and the different ways in which they collaborate with a system that promotes punishment as a central element of immigration detention. In this article, I study how fear and disgust are emotions embedded in institutional practices that reinforce punishment in immigration detention, while empathy can challenge it. I analyse working conditions and daily interactions in detention centres, immigration control facilities and their surroundings. I argue that immigration agents can develop punitive subjectivities to channel emotions derived from anxieties and frustrations of daily work, as well as to embrace a sense of institutional belonging and the illusion of order and control. However, border officers also show empathy towards migrants to cope with emotional distress and humanise their daily work. I intend to answer the questions in this paper: Under what institutional conditions do emotions become power in immigration detention settings? What do emotions reveal about the functioning of punishment in immigration detention centres? How do emotions expressed by INM agents (such as fear, disgust and empathy) enhance or challenge punitive subjectivities?

Health Care for Children in Immigration Detention.

Health Care for Children in Immigration Detention.

“The mother seems to traumatize her child”: Examining empathy, denial, and responsibility in day-to-day encounters of families and staff in immigration detention in Canada

This paper examines encounters of mothers and their children with detention facility staff during our fieldwork in immigration detention centres in Canada. We sought to understand how detainees and institutional staff understand each other and their roles within the broader system. Using a critical ethnographic frame that views the inner psychic worlds of subjects as contingent upon larger systems of power and oppression we organize our data around narrative and content themes. Our findings suggest that guards and staff see their roles as protectors of children, even as they communicate implicitly that these families are risks. Further, we propose that staff tend to project the aggressor onto the Other, in this case, migrant mothers, as a way to cope with the moral distress of witnessing the suffering of detained children, and with the burden of potential complicity. By describing how empathy, denial and responsibility are negotiated in these custodial spaces, we analyze the ways these micropolitical encounters can illuminate larger trends in the representation and reception of migrants with important implications for mental health care and border control practices and policy more broadly.

Systemic Failings or “Isolated Incidents”? A Discourse Analysis of Corporate Blame Avoidance for the Mistreatment of Immigration Detainees

This article draws on data from a major public inquiry in the UK to examine how the multinational corporation G4S sought to avoid blame for the mistreatment of immigration detainees in its care. Our analysis is based on a critical discourse analysis of oral and written evidence given by G4S and one of the company’s managing directors to the Brook House Inquiry. We show how discursive strategies of blame avoidance were prominent features of this evidence, including the scapegoating of individual custody officers, the legitimation of the profit-seeking management of immigration detention and the de-legitimation of those who brought the mistreatment of detainees to light. The article contributes to our understanding of the discursive practices employed by powerful actors to limit corporate responsibility for systemic failings.

Likelihood of COVID-19 Outbreaks in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Detention Centers, 2020‒2021.

Objectives. To determine facility-level factors associated with COVID-19 outbreaks in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers. Methods. We obtained COVID-19 case counts at 88 ICE detention facilities from May 6, 2020, through June 21, 2021, from the COVID Prison Project. We obtained information about facility population size, facility type (dedicated to immigrants or mixed with other incarcerated populations), and facility operator (public vs private contractor) from third-party sources. We defined the threshold for a COVID-19 outbreak as a cumulative 3-week incidence of 10% or more of the detained population. Results. Sixty-three facilities (72%) had at least 1 outbreak. Facilities with any outbreak were significantly more likely to be privately operated (P < .001), to have larger populations (113 vs 37; P = .002), and to have greater changes in their population size over the study period (‒56% vs -26%; P < .001). Conclusions. Several facility-level factors were associated with the occurrence of COVID-19 outbreaks in ICE facilities. Public Health Implications. Structural and organizational factors that promote respiratory infection spread in ICE facilities must be addressed to protect detainee health. (Am J Public Health. 2024;114(9):909-912. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307704).

Labour as a component of carceral circuitry: The case of asylum seekers

Building upon insights from carceral geography, this article conceptualises the ‘carceral’ as permeating beyond the prison walls to other areas of life through law and policymaking that confines and incarcerates without necessarily ‘imprisoning’. 1 Utilising the case study of asylum applicants in the UK, this article traces the role of ‘work’ as a component of carceral circuitry which enmeshes asylum seekers’ lives. Outside of immigration detention, this includes work exclusions which hinder mobility, life choices and economic independence, as well as fuelling engagement in both ‘voluntary’ unpaid work arrangements, and/or unregulated ‘criminal’ labour practices which arise as a result of exclusionary laws intent on creating a hostile environment. Inside of immigration detention analysis extends to the practice of ‘paid activities’ in which immigration detainees undertake millions of hours of work at a rate of £1.00 per hour, ostensibly ‘for their own benefit’. Labour law and its explicit exclusions, as well as the social welfare framework, thereby intersect with immigration control and the criminal law to construct, shape and reproduce this carceral sphere which seeks to control and govern asylum seekers’ lives as well as entrenching their vulnerability as an easily exploitable workforce from which value can be extracted.

NZYQ v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs: The End of Indefinite Immigration Detention in Australia?

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Exploring Immigration Detention at the Intersection of Federal Grant Funding, Sanctuary, and Political Majorities in 2015

Exploring Immigration Detention at the Intersection of Federal Grant Funding, Sanctuary, and Political Majorities in 2015

Child Migrants in Family Detention in the US: Addressing Fragmented Care.

Migrant children in family detention facilities often experience frequent relocations and prolonged stays in precarious living conditions. This frequent relocation results in fragmentation of necessary medical care, leading to delays and inadequate medical care. We aim to highlight the critical need for comprehensive medical documentation in immigration detention facilities, a fragmented health care system and potential harm to these children without appropriate medical documentation. We conducted a retrospective review of 165 medical records from children detained at the Karnes County Family Residential Center between June 2018 and October 2020 to evaluate the adequacy of pediatric medical documentation in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) family detention facility. Specific areas of interest included acute care, nutrition, immunization, developmental screening, and tuberculosis screening. Simple descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Only 25% of 418 acute medical care visits included specific diagnoses. There was no documentation regarding follow-up recommendations upon release. 97% of children had a chest X-ray completed for tuberculosis screening, however no follow-up recommendations were documented for those with granulomas. Vaccination histories were inconsistently documented. No nutritional categorizations were completed despite 16% of children being at risk for malnutrition or already malnourished. Our findings revealed significant gaps in documentation, particularly in medical decision-making and clinical reasoning. In a fragmented medical system, inadequate documentation can result in avoidable errors in diagnosis and management. Improving documentation practices is crucial to ensure that all children, regardless of immigration status, receive quality healthcare aligned with national and international standards.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind: reflections from the Covid era on social knowledge and medical thinking in Adolf Lukas Vischer’s ‘barbed wire disease’

ABSTRACT This article explores the relationship between wartime captivity and the production of medical knowledge through the phenomenon of ‘barbed wire disease’. This was a term used by First World War POWs and internees themselves to describe symptoms of depression and related neurological disorders. The Swiss surgeon Adolf Lukas Vischer borrowed it for the title of a book he wrote in 1918 suggesting that the spatial and temporal peculiarities of camp life made prolonged captivity in such an environment inhumane and a threat to future societal stability. The article argues that Vischer’s findings should be seen through the lens of historical time. His observations led him to draw attention to the contemporaneous plight of previously highly mobile and self-reliant migrants across the world now living for an unknown duration within the confines of the barbed wire. Yet equally, the article makes the case for thinking in a transhistorical way about the (often under-appreciated) mutual inter-dependence of social knowledge and medical thinking, especially in times of large-scale displacement. The shadow of the past, it will be suggested, continues to shape approaches to the mental health problems faced by people living in atypical temporal and spatial settings today, including those experiencing the symptoms of Long Covid and those held in immigration detention.

How immigration detention harms children: A conceptual framework to inform policy and practice.

This paper identifies the multiple adversities and trauma experienced by children who are detained after seeking asylum. A conceptual framework identifies the specific impact of immigration detention on the psychosocial development and mental health of refugee children that can inform policy and prevent additional migration-related trauma. The paper draws on international evidence about the impact of childhood adversity, challenges faced by all displaced children, and the additional negative consequences of immigration detention. It integrates socioecological, temporal, and relational approaches to identify the pathways through which detention of forcibly displaced children causes preventable harm. The public health and human rights implications are identified. The framework draws on Bronfenbrenner's socioecological model and has the child, their development, and experience at the center. Refugee children are exposed to cumulative adversity during displacement, flight, and resettlement. Immigration detention is associated with multiple additional adversities and human rights violations. International and national contexts and the detention environment impact on family functioning and directly on the child's well-being. Immigration detention is a preventable and profoundly negative reception experience for already vulnerable children. It is unavoidably associated with multiple additional adverse exposures with significant health and public health consequences. The proposed framework demonstrates adversity in each socioecological sphere of the detained child's life and across time. The framework can inform migration, child protection, and public health policy. Advocacy and political action to end this practice are urgently required to prevent further harm. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Masculinities in Immigration Detention Centres

A great tool to grow an empire, detention camps have been historically used and abused as a subordination tactic by all of the most powerful empires, most notably by Germany’s Nazi Regime in the Second World War. Commonly thought to have been born and died in history, they are a mostly forgotten piece of the past. Many would be shocked to discover that there is a secret world of institutions that disregard international human rights law in order to prioritize their national goals, where refugees, asylum seekers and migrants are the primary victims. Systems for migrancy and immigration detention have emerged in the wake of globalization, seeking asylum from conflicts, natural disasters or financial insecurity, or simply searching for better economic opportunities, education or reunion with family. Multicultural liberal democracies use detention centres to enforce their racialized and gendered penal power and establish a national hierarchy where poor, young men of colour are the most marginalized. This paper critically examines the victimization of male refugees, asylum seekers and migrants by neo-colonial masculinities in Canadian, American and British immigration detention centres and how these experiences create offenders through the victim-offender overlap.

“It’s a fight with your mind”: Experiences and meaning of occupation among men detained in immigration removal centres within the United Kingdom

ABSTRACT People detained in immigration detention facilities are directly and intentionally excluded from participating in occupations within society and experience negative health consequences. This study used interpretative phenomenological analysis to illuminate the experiences and meaning of occupation within this restrictive physical and social environment. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four men who were previously detained. Three group experiential themes arose from the transcripts: 1) Occupational context of detention: Confusion, uncertainty, incarceration; 2) Doing is a fight with your mind; and 3) Resisting to survive, surviving to resist. All participants experienced occupational deprivation; but, at times, participants connected positive meanings such as hope, resistance, and collective action to their occupational experiences. Alongside the occupational deprivation inherent to immigration detention there are possibilities for experiencing purposeful occupation imbued with positive meanings. The study illuminates the possibilities of more socially transformative occupational experiences, despite contextual constraints and limited opportunities.

Immigration Supervision Model for Detainees Living Outside Immigration Detention Centers: Case Study of Detainees for More Than Ten Years in Indonesia

Immigration Supervision Model for Detainees Living Outside Immigration Detention Centers: Case Study of Detainees for More Than Ten Years in Indonesia

Immigration Detention at Sea: maritime migration governance in Australia and the sanctioning of indefinite detention for the purpose of removal

Over the past four decades, maritime geographies have become prominent sites of migration governance. While there is important scholarly work on these spaces, charting changing techniques of control and containment, what continues to demand attention is the governance that works through systematically keeping people seeking asylum mobile at sea. This article focuses on Australia, examining the coerced mobilities that follow interdictions at sea and their carceral nature. I interrogate the High Court case, CPCF v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, which addresses the extended maritime detention of 157 people seeking asylum in June 2014. Through analysing the language used in this case, such as the conclusion by the majority that “to detain” a person at sea mandates a concomitant duty “to take” that person somewhere, I highlight how coerced mobility has become central to Australia's strategy of maritime migration governance and how this has come to legitimate detention at sea without any clear time limitation. This will reveal the extent to which carcerality informs migration governance in Australia's maritime geographies.

Teaching human rights-based social work in Australia – drawing from practice experiences in diverse environments

ABSTRACT This reflective piece considers the author’s formative professional experiences including working in the criminal justice system in Central Australia, and conducting humanitarian monitoring of immigration detention centers across Australia, both environments where the human rights of those impacted were constrained through the domestic legal frameworks. By utilizing these experiences to illustrate the strength of embracing a human rights-based approach within social work in Australia, the author emphasizes that this approach is broader than the construct of domestic legality alone. Having recently completed her doctoral thesis exploring the lived experiences of youth detention in New South Wales, the author describes how she frames her emerging social work teaching practice through using her professional background, incorporating case studies, and facilitating discussions in a dynamic, flipped classroom. The author emphasizes in her teaching that social workers are positioned as human rights-focused practitioners, noting that the law, not infrequently, contravenes basic human rights standards, or is not enforced with an overarching human rights-based ethos or approach. Ethical and reflective human rights-focused social work practice in Australia is vital within this country marred by deepening inequalities and the on-going destructive processes of colonization.