University of Dundee DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY How do social work professionals construct asylum seekers as objects of knowledge and targets for intervention Masocha, Shepard Award date: 2013 Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 28. Sep. 2021 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY How do social work professionals construct asylum seekers as objects of knowledge and targets for intervention. Shepard Masocha 2013 University of Dundee Conditions for Use and Duplication Copyright of this work belongs to the author unless otherwise identified in the body of the thesis. It is permitted to use and duplicate this work only for personal and non-commercial research, study or criticism/review. You must obtain prior written consent from the author for any other use. Any quotation from this thesis must be acknowledged using the normal academic conventions. It is not permitted to supply the whole or part of this thesis to any other person or to post the same on any website or other online location without the prior written consent of the author. Contact the Discovery team ([email protected]) with any queries about the use or acknowledgement of this work. How do social work professionals construct asylum seekers as objects of knowledge and targets for intervention? Shepard Masocha School of Education, Social Work and Community Education University of Dundee A thesis submitted to the University of Dundee in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work July 2012 CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ i DECLARATION ...................................................................................................... iv PUBLICATIONS ...................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................... vii Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .............................................................. 16 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 16 Critical Discursive Social Psychology ..................................................................... 18 Asylum seekers as objects of knowledge ................................................................. 28 Critique of critical discursive social psychology ..................................................... 34 Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................... 40 Research Question .................................................................................................... 40 Discussion ................................................................................................................ 60 Chapter 4 HISTORICAL OVERVIEW ....................................................................... 63 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 63 A Political Economy of British Immigration ........................................................... 66 British immigration policy before 1979 ................................................................... 69 British asylum policy under the Conservatives 1979 – 1996 ................................... 83 British asylum policy under New Labour ................................................................ 91 Discussion .............................................................................................................. 101 Chapter 5 CONSTRUCTION OF ASYLUM SEEKERS IN MEDIA AND PARLIAMENTARY DISCOURSES ........................................................................ 103 Construction of asylum seekers in media discourses ............................................. 108 Construction of asylum seekers in parliamentary discourses ................................ 114 Interpretative repertoires in anti asylum seeking discourses .................................. 117 Dissenting Voices ................................................................................................... 137 Discussion .............................................................................................................. 142 Chapter 6 CONSTRUCTION OF ASYLUM SEEKERS IN SOCIAL WORK PROFESSIONALS’ DISCOURSES ......................................................................... 146 Background ............................................................................................................ 146 Framing Professional Discourse............................................................................. 153 (i) Constitution of social work as a caring profession ........................................ 157 (ii) Constitution of asylum seekers as vulnerable individual human beings ... 159 (iii) Constitution of asylum seekers as a resource ............................................ 177 (iv) Constitution of asylum seekers as the Other .............................................. 181 (v) Constitution of asylum seekers as economic migrants .............................. 187 Discussion .............................................................................................................. 191 Chapter 7 : ACCOUNTING PRACTICES IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF ASYLUM SEEKERS .................................................................................................................. 193 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 193 Accounting practices in professional discourse ..................................................... 196 Defences in Professional Discourse ....................................................................... 200 We do the best we can ........................................................................................ 202 The coping family ............................................................................................... 215 Differential Treatment ........................................................................................ 223 Attribution of blame in professional discourse ...................................................... 226 The state of social work as a profession ............................................................. 228 Other professionals make it difficult for us ........................................................ 229 The law prevents us from helping our clients ..................................................... 233 What we are doing for them they would not be able to do it for us ................... 237 Having it better than our own ................................................................................. 239 Discussion .............................................................................................................. 240 Chapter 8 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................... 242 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 252 REFERENCES .......................................................................................................... 258 APPENDIX I: INTERVIEW SCHEDULE ........................................................... 271 APPENDIX II: RESPONDENTS’ PROFILES ..................................................... 273 APPENDIX III: ETHICS APPROVAL FORM..................................................... 277 UNIVERSITY OF DUNDEE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH ETHICS .................. 281 COMMITTEE APPROVAL FORM ...................................................................... 281 APPENDIX IV INFORMATION PACK .............................................................. 285 APPENDIX V: REQUEST FOR LOCAL AUTHORITY APPROVAL............... 290 i ABSTRACT Over the years, the issue of migrants seeking asylum in the United Kingdom has been the subject of increasing media and political attention. The need to provide asylum seekers with culturally sensitive services is widely acknowledged within social work. However, the social work profession continues to draw heavily on outdated views and definitions of racism mainly based on skin colour and biological categorisation. This is in spite of the fact that the late 20th century has witnessed the emergence of “new racism” (Barker, 1981) and xenoracism (Sivanandan, 2001). This thesis uses the concept of xenoracism as a framework for understanding the ever-shifting parameters of exclusionary discourses, and seeks to