The point of (no) return? An ethnographic study of daily life and forced removal practices in immigration detention centres
Description: The detention of irregular migrants in lieu of forced removal has become a central feature of European immigration policies. International criminological research has illustrated the hybrid nature of immigration detention: despite being administrative in character, as an instrument of migration control, it embodies punitive elements that give it a ‘prison-like’ institutional characteristics. In order to gain insight to its nature and the implications for those involved, ethnographic research in immigration detention centres in Belgium and the Netherlands was conducted. In order to fully understand the everyday life in immigration detention, multiple viewpoints are taken into account as both the perspective of irregular migrants subjected to immigration detention and the perspective of different immigration detention staff members (social workers, security personnel and members of the activity team) are studied.
Outputs: Doctoral thesis, academic articles, conference presentations, communications for a broader public.
Relevant publications:
Breuls, L. (2017). Portraying forced removal as a means for crime control. On immigration policy communication in Belgium. Lo Squaderno: Explorations in Space and Society, 44, 39-42.
Coordinator: Prof Kristel Beyens
Researcher: Lars Breuls
Funding: Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO)
Duration: 2016-2020