Policing immigration
(Ended 18th Jun 2024)

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18 June 2024 2:30pm – 4:30pm Free Online event

The policing of immigration, particularly irregular immigration, is currently riding high on many police, policy and political agendas. In this seminar we consider the practice and implications of police work at borders, covering questions that range from the nature of the problems concerned, through police cultures, the political context of police work, and the ethical challenges policing at borders raises, to the likely efficacy, or otherwise, of police actions intended to stem the movement of people across borders.

Speakers:

Prof. Ana Aliverti, The University of Warwick

Interrogating the borders of the sociology of policing: magic, politics, and morality in immigration policing
More than a decade ago, Bethan Loftus urged policing scholars to scrutinise the culture and practices of the immigration and border control officers. Yet, immigration policing remains a niche area which has yet to attract attention from scholars interested in policing regimes. Building on the work conducted on border and immigration officers in the UK and elsewhere, I argue for the importance of bridging this disciplinary gap. I focus on three areas where I suggest such scrutiny may expand and enrich the spatial, social and conceptual frameworks of the sociology of policing: informality and magic; the politics of policing; and the moral worlds of police officers.

David L. Suber, University College London

Enforcing borders: A border ethnography of people smuggling networks and border enforcement practices

Curbing migrant smuggling gangs is often depicted by governments and authorities in Europe as the main priority to resolve irregular migration. Over the last decade, European policy responses to irregular migration have been centred around deterrence and detection of irregular border crossings, with anti-smuggling and border securitization at the top of the security and migration management agendas. The evidence on the ground, however, suggests a very different picture. Human smuggling is mostly run by small and loose groups, working together on ad hoc opportunist arrangements rather than through long-established organised networks. Rather than reducing human smuggling to a crime phenomenon, evidence collected through multi-site fieldwork suggests that where harsher border enforcement policies were implemented is also where the most organised smuggling groups are currently emerging and active. This empirical data indicates that whilst border enforcement can be effective in challenging self-organised small-scale smuggling groups, it also provides the conditions for more organised and professionalised smugglers to take over. In this presentation I draw on some of the unintended consequences of border enforcement on the migration routes to Europe and the UK: border corruption, the adaptation and professionalisation of smuggling groups and the increasing vulnerability of migrants and asylum seekers on route.

Other speakers TBC

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