Zaweel, Asylum Seeker
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Durham E-Theses Rethinking Resistance: Creativity and potentiality within the UK asylum system HUGHES, SARAH,MARGARET How to cite: HUGHES, SARAH,MARGARET (2018) Rethinking Resistance: Creativity and potentiality within the UK asylum system , Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/12686/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Rethinking Resistance: Creativity and potentiality within the UK asylum system Sarah M. Hughes Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geography, Durham University 2017 Abstract This thesis explores the ways in which creativity can produce modes of resistance within the UK asylum system. It argues for a rethinking of resistance across three dimensions: non-linear temporalities; incoherent subjectivities, and lively materialities. The thesis proposes that a focus on creativity allows for a critical engagement with ambiguous moments, materials and subjects that contain the immanent potential to disrupt both the practices and premise of the UK asylum system; to imagine, and thus to open up the possibility, that things can become otherwise. The argument arises from ethnographic research conducted within the multiple spaces of the UK asylum system, working closely with two charities running creative activities in this area: Music in Detention and Crossings. This research produced three main themes which form the focus of the empirical chapters of this thesis. First, the thesis demonstrates how an attention to (non)linear temporalities disrupts the ontologically realist linear time of the state; that music and artwork pulse with discordant rhythms, which bring multiple space-times into the ‘present’. It suggests that this has consequences for how resistance is understood for, when situated within a framing of time as polyrhythmic, it is possible to remain open to the multiplicity of directions that these may moments bring. Second, the thesis moves to focus upon an (in)coherent subject. Drawing upon the interactions of staff and immigration detainees, and the wider place of creative charities within UK asylum system, it argues for the fixed coordinates of intention and opposition to be decentred from narratives of resistance, for to delineate resistance a priori is miss that moments, subjects and materials contain the potential to trouble the performance of the asylum system. Finally, the thesis examines the lively, agentic materials of resistance. It argues that materials contain the potential to form relations that cannot always be predetermined. Crucially however, the thesis demonstrates that whilst the potential for resistance is latent within all relations, the possibility for resistance is not evenly distributed; the topography of possibility is undulating, continually shaped by structural inequalities. Together these chapters make the argument for an attention to the potential for resistance as always-already entangled within the exercise of power; found within the messiness, the fractures and the ambiguities that saturate the UK asylum system. Rethinking Resistance: Creativity and potentiality within the UK asylum system Sarah M. Hughes Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geography, Durham University 2017 Table of Contents Table of Figures ........................................................................................................ vi Statement of Copyright ........................................................................................... ix Publications from this thesis .................................................................................... x List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................... xi Acknowledgements ................................................................................................ xii Prologue: Moments that fracture .......................................................................... 1 Moment 1: Zaweel, asylum seeker ..................................................................... 1 Moment 2: Joseph, Officer, Immigration Removal Centre ............................. 2 Moment 3: Peacock, Unknown nationality ....................................................... 3 Chapter One: Introduction ..................................................................................... 6 1. Resistance to contemporary practices of border control ............................. 6 2. The UK asylum system .................................................................................. 11 2.i Dispersal ....................................................................................................... 14 2.ii Detention ..................................................................................................... 16 2.iii The immanent spaces of the UK asylum system ........................................ 19 3. Framing resistance within the UK asylum system, turning to creativity as poiesis ............................................................................................................... 20 4. Research Questions ......................................................................................... 26 5. Research Methods ........................................................................................... 27 5.i Music in Detention ....................................................................................... 28 5.ii Crossings ..................................................................................................... 31 6. Terminology ..................................................................................................... 33 7. Thesis Outline .................................................................................................. 36 Chapter Two: Theorising Resistance .................................................................. 42 i 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................... 42 2. Resistance within Political Geography ........................................................ 43 2.i Resistance as counter movement: dialectics and dualisms. .......................... 47 2.ii Entangled forces: power relations, resistant relations................................. 49 2.iii In Summary ............................................................................................... 61 3. Resistance within contemporary systems of asylum control. .................. 62 3.i Migrant Activism and Solidarity Movements ............................................. 63 3.ii Everyday tactics and strategies ................................................................... 73 3.iii Creativity, resistance and asylum control.................................................. 75 3.iv In Summary ................................................................................................ 79 4. Conclusions: Rethinking resistance, potentiality and a turn to creativity as poiesis ............................................................................................................... 80 Chapter Three: Methods: Researching Resistance ........................................... 85 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................... 85 1.i A beginning .................................................................................................. 86 1.ii Approach to methods ................................................................................... 89 2. Access ‘denied’ ................................................................................................ 93 3. Ethnographic Methods ................................................................................... 98 3.i Participant Observation ............................................................................... 99 3.ii Semi-Structured Interviews ...................................................................... 113 3.iii Artwork .................................................................................................... 122 4. Analysis and Writing Up ............................................................................. 124 5. Ethical concerns ............................................................................................. 126 6. Summary ........................................................................................................ 129 Chapter Four: (Non)linear temporalities of resistance .................................. 131 Twenty-Four 7 ................................................................................................... 131 1. Introduction: A politics of temporality. ..................................................... 132 1.i The ‘political’