Kirjahaku

'Elegant and disturbing. A brilliant analysis of the cruel biopolitics of care in contemporary Britain' - Ash Amin Of the many state-enacted cruelties to which refugees and asylum seekers are subjected, detention and deportation loom largest in popular consciousness. But there is a third practice, perpetrating a slower violence, that remains hidden: dispersal. Jonathan Darling provides the first detailed account of how dispersal - the system of accommodation and support for asylum seekers and refugees in Britain - both sustains and produces patterns of violence, suffering and social abjection. He explores the evolution of dispersal as a privatised process, from the first outsourced asylum accommodation contracts in 2012 to the renewed wave of outsourcing pursued by the Home Office today. Drawing on six years of research into Britain's dispersal system, and foregrounding the voices and experiences of refugees and asylum seekers, Darling argues that dispersal has played a central role in the erasure of asylum from public concern. Systems of Suffering is a vital tool in the arsenal of those fighting to hold the government to account for the violence of its asylum policy and practice.

'Elegant and disturbing. A brilliant analysis of the cruel biopolitics of care in contemporary Britain' - Ash Amin Of the many state-enacted cruelties to which refugees and asylum seekers are subjected, detention and deportation loom largest in popular consciousness. But there is a third practice, perpetrating a slower violence, that remains hidden: dispersal. Jonathan Darling provides the first detailed account of how dispersal - the system of accommodation and support for asylum seekers and refugees in Britain - both sustains and produces patterns of violence, suffering and social abjection. He explores the evolution of dispersal as a privatised process, from the first outsourced asylum accommodation contracts in 2012 to the renewed wave of outsourcing pursued by the Home Office today. Drawing on six years of research into Britain's dispersal system, and foregrounding the voices and experiences of refugees and asylum seekers, Darling argues that dispersal has played a central role in the erasure of asylum from public concern. Systems of Suffering is a vital tool in the arsenal of those fighting to hold the government to account for the violence of its asylum policy and practice.

An eye-opening account of how right-wing populists have captured the debate on asylum. Since the 2019 general election, Britain’s relationship to asylum has shifted dramatically. As successive governments have struggled to retain support, the rise of unscrupulous political entrepreneurs and clickbait media has brought openly repressive policies crashing into the mainstream. In Taking back control, Jonathan Darling tracks how this shift took place and exposes its devastating effects on British politics. Focusing on boats, hotels, barracks and removal flights, he shows how asylum seekers have been made a focal point for public resentment and how serious policy has been replaced with spectacles of performative cruelty. From proposals to install wave machines in the English Channel to the costly fiasco of the Rwanda plan, the government has flaunted international law and wasted millions in taxpayers’ money on schemes with no prospect of success. Taking back control explains how we got here while offering pathways to a more welcoming future.

An eye-opening account of how right-wing populists have captured the debate on asylum. Since the 2019 general election, Britain’s relationship to asylum has shifted dramatically. As successive governments have struggled to retain support, the rise of unscrupulous political entrepreneurs and clickbait media has brought openly repressive policies crashing into the mainstream. In Taking back control, Jonathan Darling tracks how this shift took place and exposes its devastating effects on British politics. Focusing on boats, hotels, barracks and removal flights, he shows how asylum seekers have been made a focal point for public resentment and how serious policy has been replaced with spectacles of performative cruelty. From proposals to install wave machines in the English Channel to the costly fiasco of the Rwanda plan, the government has flaunted international law and wasted millions in taxpayers’ money on schemes with no prospect of success. Taking back control explains how we got here while offering pathways to a more welcoming future.