Detention and Deportation

Research on immigration detention and deportation systems has been a key priority for the Border Criminologies research network since its beginning. Our ongoing ethnographic work in the UK, Greece, Italy, Portugal and elsewhere, presents a variety of forms of evidence including videography, photography, original art, oral history, and testimonies from those directly affected about the institutions in which they are held. In collaboration with civil society organisations and activists in the field, we have also built countermaps of these facilities shaped by migrants’ struggles, as well as advocacy tools for those engaged in strategic litigation. In creating this thematic group, we want to advance our understanding of how detention and deportation systems operate and explain their persistence despite growing criticism of them. At a time when the use of detention as a means to confine mobility, not just in traditional institutions but also in hybrid sites, has proliferated, we seek to draw attention to what goes on behind bars. By focusing on notions of race, gender and citizenship and how those who are subject to these practices or work in these fields negotiate their daily lives, we highlight the violence of these places and their role in upholding illegalisation and racialisation. In addition to contributing to academic scholarship, we seek to build alliances to bring forward a radical critique of these bordering mechanisms.

To do so, we seek to create a network of researchers from across the world, who study detention and deportation from different perspectives and disciplines. This network will not simply have a comparative focus but will further work as a creative forum to engage with these fields in theory, policy and practice across time and space. We are also pursuing partnerships with civil society organisations, activists and those affected by deportation and detention, who will act as local collaborators and will meet together regularly to develop ideas and learn from one another.

We will create a thematic section on the Border Criminologies blog to publish about our research and use the Border Criminologies social media to disseminate news from this thematic group. We will hold events both in person and online. Other possible activities could include creating a reading group and working together for funding bids.  We are committed to supporting early career scholars and also to fostering debate over research methods, ethics and access.  If you would like more information or to join this group, please email: mary.bosworth@crim.ox.ac.uk, andriani.fili@crim.ox.ac.uk, francesca.esposito@crim.ox.ac.uk.