Nothing to Lose: The Power of Subtle Forms of Resistance in an Immigration Detention Centre

2019 ◽  
pp. 309-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annalisa Lendaro
Keyword(s):  
Immigration Detention ◽  
Detention Centre

Subjectivity and identity in detention: Punishment and society in a global age

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Bosworth
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Foreign National ◽  
Immigration Detention ◽  
Detention Centre ◽  
Global Age

This article draws on ethnographic research that I conducted in five British immigration removal centres from November 2009 to June 2011, and considers the challenges these institutions pose to our understanding of penal power. These centres contain a complex mix of foreign national citizens including former and current asylum seekers, those without visas, visa over-stayers and post-sentence foreign national prisoners. For many non-British offenders, a period of confinement in an immigration detention centre is now, effectively, part of their punishment. What are the implications of this dual confinement and (how) can we understand it within the intellectual framework of punishment and society?

scholarly journals Evaluating Ontario immigration detention centres through the lens of non-governmental organizations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharyne Williams
Keyword(s):  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Immigration Detention ◽  
Detention Centre ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Greater Toronto Area ◽  
It Impacts ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Background Content

This Masters Research Paper provides a critical analysis of the behavioural practices of immigration detention centres and how that affects the abilities of NGOs to support immigration detainees. This paper aims to identify the covert racism that is embedded within immigration detention centres in Canada, exploring how racialized detainees are susceptible to longer detention periods and mal-treatment due to increasing securitization. There will be focus on Ontario immigration detention centres in particular since many of Canada’s asylum claims and detention processes occur in Toronto and the greater Toronto area. This research fills the gap in directly addressing the impacts of racist practices of detention and how it impacts detainees’ ability to seek proper legal aid and interferes with NGOs abilities to aid detainees through their detention process. The methodology used begins with a theoretical framework using Critical Race Theory and background content on immigration detention centres, while drawing out the process of the criminalization of refugees. For this study there were one-on-on interviews conducted with 3 participants who are NGO representatives. Key words: immigration detention centre, detainees, national security, criminalization

scholarly journals “Do you want to help or go to war?”: Ethical challenges of critical research in immigration detention in Canada

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 644-660 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Kronick ◽  
Janet Cleveland ◽  
Cécile Rousseau
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Critical Research ◽  
Immigration Detention ◽  
Detention Centre ◽  
Pivotal Moments ◽  
Ethnographic Approach ◽  
Mass Displacement

In a time of mass displacement, countries across the globe are seeking to protect borders through coercive methods of deterrence such as immigration detention. In Canada, migrants—including children—may be detained in penal facilities having neither been charged nor convicted of crimes. In this paper we examine how we dealt with the series of ethical dilemmas that emerged while doing research in immigration detention centres in Canada. Using a critical ethnographic approach, we examine the process of our research in the field, seeking to understand what our emotional responses and those of the staff could tell us about detention itself, but also about what is at stake when researchers are faced with the suffering of participants in these spaces of confinement. The findings suggest that field work in immigration detention centres is an emotionally demanding process and that there were several pivotal moments in which our sense of moral and clinical obligations toward distressed detainees, especially children, were in conflict with our role as researchers. We also grapple with how the disciplinary gaze of the detention centre affects researchers entering the space. Given these tensions, we argue, spaces of critical reflection that can consider and contain the strongly evoked emotions are crucial, both for researchers, and perhaps more challengingly, for detention centre employees and gatekeepers as well.

scholarly journals Witnessing the experience of European bordering: Watching the documentary Under den samme himmel in an immigration detention centre

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karina Horsti
Keyword(s):  
Documentary Film ◽  
Immigration Detention ◽  
Detention Centre ◽  
Detention Facility ◽  
Border Zones ◽  
Immigrant Detention

This article draws on theories of bordering and mediated witnessing to examine a documentary film that mediates migrants’ experiences of bordering in Europe. My analysis of Under den samme himmel/Days of Hope shows how the film captures the multiplicity of bordering practices, from geographical to socio-cultural borderings. The analysis is informed by watching and discussing the film in an immigrant detention facility in Finland with people who experienced and eye-witnessed experiences similar to those depicted in the film. This creates a sense of co-presence of the experiential landscapes in the border zones, and the film invites viewers to consider borders not as lines in the landscape, but as zones and as a form of practice that has consequences.

The pains of detainment: Experience of time and coping strategies at immigration detention centres

2019 ◽  
pp. 136248061985598
Author(s):  
Liridona Gashi ◽  
Willy Pedersen ◽  
Thomas Ugelvik
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Slow Motion ◽  
Immigration Detention ◽  
Detention Centre ◽  
Immigration Control ◽  
Resistance Strategies ◽  
Experience Of Time ◽  
Temporal Aspects ◽  
Perception Of Time ◽  
And Coping

In most jurisdictions, immigration detention centres are seen as an important part of the immigration control system. Research suggests that stressful waiting and the experience of uncertainty are common at such institutions. However, few empirical studies show how detainees manage these matters. In this article, we draw on fieldwork conducted at the only detention centre in Norway. Detainees described their situation as frustrating and emotionally challenging; and we show how they as a response developed a set of coping techniques aimed at ‘making their own time’. The most important were: (1) living in ‘slow motion’; (2) censorious attacks directed at the institution to break the monotony; (3) the use of benzodiazepines to regulate the perception of time; and (4) religious practices to connect the present with the future. We conclude that when investigating coping- and resistance strategies, we should not overlook the temporal aspects of them and their implications.

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