Alpa Parmar (Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford)
This project explores the changing nature of policing under conditions of mass mobility. Drawing on qualitative research condcuted with Thames Valley Police and Home Office Immigration case workers, it examines the impacts of the growing interconnections between the criminal justice and immigration systems. Under what circumstances do police stop and check the immigration status of suspects? Why do case workers decide to detain and deport? How does information flow between the police and the Home Office, what are some barriers to cross-departmental work? Starting with such descriptive, empirical questions, this projects moves into more conceptual matters about the role of racialisation, belonging and discretion, mapping the continuities and discontinuities in current practice with older forms of engagement with migrant communities. While on the one hand, police powers, are expanding as they are set to work to secure the border, on the other, much of their labour looks familiar. How, under these circumstances, is it best understood? This project is the first of its kind and draws on unique research access we have acquired with the police and the Home Office.
Read Alpa Parmar's and Mary Bosworth's blog posting on Policing Migration on the Border Criminologies blog.
