Michael Collyer

When do social networks fail to explain migration? Accounting for the movement of Algerian asylum seeks to the UK

This paper examines the diversity of destinations of asylum-seekers in Europe, focusing on the particular situation of asylum-seekers who claim asylum in countries with no significant co-national population, such as the growing Algerian community in the UK. This movement challenges existing social network approaches to migration. It is clear that many Algerians have family links in France and that the majority continue to travel there, so there can be no suggestion that social networks are no longer relevant, or do not apply to refugee movement. However, it is apparent that most Algerians coming to Britain also have family links to France but that strict migration controls reduce the possibility of mobilising the social capital inherent in these social networks. I conclude therefore that, as a result of migration restrictions, undocumented migrants use social networks differently, focusing on weaker ties rather than strong family networks. Political and economic factors also influence location decisions, especially in the absence of strong social imperatives towards particular locations.

Deportation and the Micropolitics of Exclusion: The Rise of Removals from the UK to Sri Lanka

The forced removal of foreign nationals has been a relatively uncommon occurrence in liberal democracies, at least since the 2nd World War. This can be explained by both the inherent violence of this process, which raises widespread public opposition, and by the geopolitical difficulties it raises, as there must be agreement of both countries concerned. In recent years these problems appear to have been partially overcome and since 2005 a ‘deportation turn’ is evident across the European Union as deportations increase. This paper focuses on the international dimension to this increase, following work investigating deportation as an essentially biopolitical process of international governance of populations. This approach is developed in an analysis of the geopolitical impacts of that management process. The paper uses empirical research with Sri Lankan migrants who left the UK either as a result of force or voluntary returns policies to explain this development. It identifies the changing strategy of the deportation process, particularly recent attention to the negotiation of bilateral and multilateral readmission agreements and the role of international organisations as mediators as key contributions to an explanation for the rise in deportations.

Producing transnational space International migration and the extra-territorial reach of state power

Geographical research into migrants’ use of transnational space has contributed towards the materialization of a purely metaphorical construct. A largely separate literature on borders has sought to ‘transnationalize’ the border by identifying how control practices move away from the physical border line. This paper brings these developing approaches together. The various ways in which state institutions attempt to control transnational relations require some account of control mechanisms that surpass the state’s current territorial limits. Three techniques of control are identified from the literature review – physical, symbolic and imaginative. These are explored in two case studies.

Introduction: Music and Migration

Attention to migration and the activities of migrants have added vigour to studies of a range of cultural phenomena from literature and film to architecture and food. Music is particularly interesting as it is one of the widest spread and most easily created forms of cultural production. Ethnomusicology has long been attentive to processes and results of migration but it is only relatively recently that this has had an impact on studies of migration more broadly. As an introduction to the special issue, this article reviews literature, sets out a typology for considering the relationship between music and migration, and contextualises the papers in this collection.

Migrants, Migration and the Security Paradigm: Constraints and Opportunities

Scholars of migration have struggled with the concept of security since it was first connected with migrants in the early 1990s. The initial reaction was frequently a total rejection of any association between the two, emphasizing the usually negative effects of the security discourse on migrants. The security paradigm is now becoming so ingrained that it is impossible to ignore the impact of security concerns on the development of migration policy. This article examines the historical development of the security approach through the response to Algerian migrants in France over the decade from 1993 to 2003. This leads to the development of a critical security position that does not reject the security focus but combines it with a constructivist approach in an attempt to explain recent developments in attitudes to migrants and migration in Europe.

Secret agents: Anarchists, Islamists and responses to politically active refugees in London

The literature on the securitization of migration has characterized a growing trend in migration legislation to treat migration as a security issue. This legitimizes increasingly harsh responses to migrants. Recent legislation in the UK has responded to security concerns directly through the immigration system, where discrimination on the basis of national origin remains permissible, rather than the criminal justice system, where it is not. A historical comparison of two refugee communities reveals the extent to which the security response has become ingrained in British policy-making on migration issues. At the end of the nineteenth century Parliament was faced with a very similar set of issues to those faced by government a century later but a strong liberal consensus implemented very different legislation. Migration policy should not be governed by the actions of a tiny minority of real or imagined ‘secret agents’. The only just solution is to deal with the situation through the criminal justice system, rather than as an immigration issue.

Capitalizing social networks: Sri Lankan migration to Italy

Social capital is usually seen as a fixed asset, a property which individuals or in some cases communities possess or do not possess. Theoretical attention has therefore been devoted to the initial acquisition of this precious asset, focusing on the question of how to ‘build’ social capital, which partly explains the sustained policy interest, particularly in fields such as development. This particular focus is a result of a confusion between what social capital is and what it does, identified by Portes, and results in a static picture of social capital. Separating the essence of social capital from its function allows us to follow Bourdieu’s interest in the active maintenance of social capital, after it has been created. The conscious efforts that actors make to foster social relations for their own future benefit highlight the fragile nature of the benefits associated with social capital. We refer to these activities as social network work, a practice that is particularly clear among active and aspiring undocumented migrants. We apply this to fieldwork in the Catholic fishing village of Wennapuwa on the west coast of Sri Lanka where migration to Italy is a well developed strategy for many households. We identify significant moments of change or articulation in migrants’ use of social capital as a contribution towards a more dynamic understanding of this key social phenomenon.

The reinvention of political community in a transnational setting: framing the Kabyle citizens’ movement

Abstract Spontaneous demonstrations of solidarity in response to some significant event in migrants’ homes are a common feature of modern diasporas. Periodic mobilizations around natural disasters or political events activate latent feelings of belonging and challenge notions of deterritorialized identities. Analysis of transnational social movements highlights framing processes as a key tool of analysis, focusing attention on the agency of participants. The Kabyle citizens’ movement provides an important example of a transnational organization that was rapidly established in the absence of, and indeed as a rejection of, institutional forms of political engagement. Attention to framing processes highlights key differences in the ways in which this movement was presented to participants within Algeria and to those in the diaspora. The emphasis on the central importance of territorially based legitimacy gradually redefined the understanding of the Kabyle diaspora among those who identified with it. This ultimately resulted in a decline of agency in the diaspora which was unable to sustain mobilization once the cycle of protest within Algeria came to an end.

Geopolitics as a migration governance strategy: European Union bilateral relations with Southern Mediterranean countries

ABSTRACT The significance of regional consultative processes in the field of migration is well documented. Their popularity for states is typically explained by the opportunity they provide for largely non-binding discussions around sensitive, sovereignty-laden issues such as border control. Since the mid-1990s, a variety of intergovernmental meetings have been sponsored by the EU with the aim of discussing migration with neighbouring countries. European policy frameworks have specifically excluded the countries to the South from the possibility of membership, yet they are now absolutely crucial to the realisation of the EUs migration ambitions. Since the 1999 Tampere European Council relations with these states have been managed through a discourse of ‘partnership’, emphasising the regional ‘Euro-Mediterranean’ character of this relationship. This paper analyses EU relations with Southern Mediterranean states as a specific attempt to construct a geopolitical region—the Euro-Mediterranean area—from and through migration management strategies. It concludes that the development of policy in this area results from a huge number of poorly focused and sometimes contradictory initiatives that collectively make up a far more haphazard approach than the common externalisation critique suggests. This haphazard approach helps to explain the range of unintended consequences of this policy but may also lead to its limited successes.

Transnational Ties and Belonging: Remittances from Pakistani Migrants in Norway

The thesis presents valuable new empirical work linking up the major recent concerns of migration studies of transnationalism and remittances. Despite the broad array of literature focused on these two themes, the connection between them is both interesting and original. The thesis poses two major questions: (1) What characterizes remittances in the transnational social field that links Norway and Pakistan? and (2) How do migrants’ transnational ties interact with integration in Norway? Both questions are answered through qualitative research and surveys in the two countries. In addition to the foundation, the thesis consists of three sole-authored and two jointly authored articles: