In response to what has been called the European ‘refugee crisis’ in 2015, the Welsh Government committed that Wales should become the world’s first Nation of Sanctuary through building a culture of welcome and hospitality. This was an interesting moment given that Wales does not have direct responsibility for British borders. Considering the urban origins of the sanctuary movement, this was also the first-time a (devolved) state administration adopted this vocabulary to frame their relation to refugees and asylum seekers. What might it mean, in practice and in theory, for Wales to declare itself a ‘Nation of Sanctuary’? What are the theoretical and political imaginaries of sanctuary, national identity and hospitality at work in this context? What are their historical precedents? And how do they relate to political responses to the crisis across the UK and Europe? This thesis examines what the idea of a Welsh Nation of Sanctuary means, what it does, and how the discourses and narratives of a ‘Nation of Sanctuary’ provide new ways of revisiting the metaphor of hospitality, and its role in sovereign framings of migration. While the critical literature on migration and the sanctuary movement explored the limits of hospitality as a framing response to the exclusionary politics of asylum, this thesis argues that this national sanctuary discourse is also used to challenge a sovereign nation-state on the expectations of what it entails to ‘be a host’ to refugees and asylum seekers. Drawing on semi-structured interviews, archival material and documents from the Welsh and British government, this thesis argues that this new national sanctuary framing creates a second othering. Here, a subnational or devolved territorial unit creates national self-imaginaries through a politics of differentiation against the sovereign nation-state, with regards to the exclusionary politics of asylum.
‘I don’t think there’s anything I can do which can keep me healthy’: how the UK immigration and asylum system shapes the health & wellbeing of refugees and asylum seekers in Scotland
