What’s in a Sentence? Racialized Narratives and Space in Immigration Courtrooms

• In Event: Criminology of Mobility. Panel 1. Immigration processes and mobility control

Abstract

Drawing on ethnographic observations of immigration tribunal hearings in London, this paper analyses the sentencing remarks made by judges in the cases of migrants considered for removal or deportation on criminal grounds. Alongside the narratives of judges, the paper explores the dynamics, hierarchies and organisation of space that contribute to everyday race-making practices within courtrooms. The research is contextualized within theoretical approaches that have traced the development of legal narrative and legal truth as white and asks who law is really for in these arenas. In doing so, the paper draws links with the colonial legacies that shape the ongoing constructions of lawlessness, practices of punishment and spatial exclusion that inform and frame the racialization of people from migrant backgrounds.

Author

• Alpa Parmar, University of Cambridge