Hostile Homes: Violence, Harm and the Marketisation of UK Asylum Housing

This book explores how the state and private security firms contribute to the harm of asylum seekers by implementing policies and practices that result in states of perpetual destitution, exclusion, and neglect. It exposes the complex relationship between the states social control aims and neoliberal imperatives of market expansion into the immigration control regime.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 188 pages
Publication date: 03 September 2022
Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland AG

This book delves into the intricate ways in which the state and private security firms perpetuate direct and structural harm upon asylum seekers, leading to states of perpetual destitution, exclusion, and neglect. By synthesizing a range of perspectives, including historical and contemporary public policy, criminological and sociological insights, political philosophy, and firsthand accounts from asylum seekers residing in dispersed accommodations, the text uncovers the complex and mutually reinforcing relationship between the state's social control objectives and the neoliberal imperatives of market expansion within the immigration control regime. The title draws inspiration from a former Home Secretary's statement, Theresa May, who declared that the UK government sought to create a "hostile environment" in its response to illegal immigration. Although the Home Office later attempted to rebrand this policy as a "compliant environment," this book demonstrates how aggressive approaches towards managing asylum-seeking populations have effectively expanded the hostile environment to include those who are legally present within the UK.

Through an examination of the growing privatization of dispersed asylum housing and the UK government's reliance on contracts with private security firms such as G4S and Serco, this book explores the lived realities of hostile environments as asylum seekers share their experiences, shedding light on the human costs associated with marketized asylum accommodation programs.

Weight: 263g
Dimension: 210 x 148 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783030792152
Edition number: 1st ed. 2021