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

Session Submission Type: Pre-arranged Panel

Abstract

Immigration detention stands at the intersection of state power, legal ambiguity, and human vulnerability—a space where violence is not only enacted physically but is also embedded in bureaucratic procedures, economic strategies, and cultural practices. This panel brings together comparative perspectives from Greece, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Hong Kong to explore the multifaceted dynamics of violence in detention. The contributions reveal how immigration policies and enforcement frameworks create conditions for physical, psychological, and structural harm, while also examining the mechanisms that obscure or normalise such violence. By comparing these four contexts, the panel illuminates broader global trends and unique local conditions, fostering a deeper understanding of the interplay between immigration control and state-sanctioned violence.

One presentation critically unpacks the bureaucratic systems in Britain that render violence both measurable and financially insulated, demonstrating how administrative practices can neutralise its visibility. Another contribution documents the pervasive, normalised violence in Greek detention centers, highlighting how everyday abuses are silenced through state practices and civil society marginalisation. A third paper turns to the United States, analyzing how speculative municipal debt and local political economies have fueled the construction of massive detention facilities, with far-reaching consequences for both detainees and communities. Finally, the panel considers the case of Hong Kong, where violence is intricately tied to processes that manufacture detainees’ consent for removal through institutional indifference and culturally specific practices.

Together, these papers reveal the diverse ways in which state and local mechanisms intersect to produce and perpetuate violence in immigration detention. By interrogating the interplay between administrative regimes, economic imperatives, and cultural narratives, this panel invites a critical rethinking of the human costs of detention and explores avenues for advocacy, reform, and the protection of human dignity in the era of global border control.

Subtopic

• Topic 5: Social Control and Criminal Justice / Crime Control and the Immigration System (Immigration, Crime and Citizenship WG)

Chair

• Mary Bosworth, University of Oxford

Individual Presentations

• Bureaucracy, Violence and Border Control in Britain - Mary Bosworth, University of Oxford

• Documenting the Undocumented: Violence in Immigration Detention in Greece - Andriani Fili, University of Oxford Centre for Criminology, England

• Manufacturing consent to removal via indifference - The case of immigration detention in Hong Kong - Wing Yin Anna Tsui, University of Oxford (DPhil, incoming cohort 2025-26