Bureaucracy, Violence and Border Control in Britain

• In Event: Violence and Immigration Detention: Comparative Perspectives from Greece, the UK, and the US

Abstract

This paper draws on a long-term, mixed-methods research project in the UK on ‘immigration detainee escorting’, to explore the administrative nature and forms of violence in short-term immigration detention and deportation. Focusing on the processes around use of force, including staff training, recording and analysis, I explore how the private company and their public sector ‘client’ -- the Home Office – have created a detailed, bureaucratic system that neutralises and financialises violence. These practices disguise the centrality of violence within border control and thereby perpetuate and legitimate this politically contested set of practices.

Author

• Mary Bosworth, University of Oxford