Asylum After Empire: Colonial Legacies in the Politics of Asylum Seeking

Description

Asylum seekers are not welcome in Europe. But why is that the case? For many scholars, the policies have become more restrictive over recent decades because the asylum seekers have changed. This change is often said to be about numbers, methods of travel, and reasons for flight. In short: we are in an age of hypermobility and states cannot cope with such volumes of 'others'. This book presents an alternative view, drawing on theoretical insights from Third World Approaches to International Law, post- and decolonial studies, and presenting new research on the context of the British Empire. The text highlights the fact that since the early 1990s, for the first time, the majority of asylum seekers originate from countries outside of Europe, countries which until 30-60 years ago were under colonial rule. Policies which address asylum seekers must, the book argues, be understood not only as part of a global hypermobile present, but within the context of colonial histories. Cover Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgements Chapter One Introduction ASYLUM IN BRITAIN Key Terms The Right to Asylum Colonialism, Imperialism and the West ‘Race’ Structure of the book Note Chapter Two The Asylum ‘Problem’ Asylum policy in Britain: A short history The Rise of the Asylum ‘Problem’: The Standard Narrative The Standard Narrative: A Sociology of Absences Silences around Non-European Refugees Before the 1990s Silences around Colonial Exclusions from the Refugee Conventions Silences around the Legacies of Colonialism for Mobility and Immobility Silences around the Legacies of Colonialism in Ideas of Asylum Seekers as Undesirable and Excludable Moving Forward Chapter Three Decolonising the ‘Problem’ An Alternative Standpoint for Analysing the Exclusionary Politics of Asylum The Myth of Difference Asylum Seeker Hostility: Racism or Racialisation? Asylum Seekers and (un)Modernity Modernity and ‘Man’ Tracing Histories of Continuity Conclusion Chapter Four Slavery and the Right to Be Human Atlantic Slavery Abolition: An Institutional Orders Analysis The Transformative Order The Colonial Order Victory for the Transformative Order Enslaved People, ‘Blacks’ and the Legacy of Differential Humanity Notes Chapter Five Colonialism, the League of Nations and Race Equality The Rise of ‘Race’ Hierarchy in the Nineteenth Century The Race Equality Proposal at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference Japan and the Transformative Order The Colonial Order ‘Race’ Hierarchies in Action Notes Chapter Six The United Nations and the Right to Be Human The 1951 Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees: Silences in Human Rights Britain and the 1951 Convention: An Institutional Orders Analysis The Colonial Order and Human Rights The Transformative Order and Human Rights Human Rights, Refugee Rights and the Legacy of Differential Humanity Chapter Seven Dehumanisation Asylum Seeker Support in the Twenty-First Century Asylum Support in Contemporary Britain Reasserting a Common Humanity: The Battleground of Asylum Support The Transformative Order The Coloniality of Power: The Anti-Asylum Institutional Order Human Rights, Asylum Seekers’ Rights and the Continued Legacies of Differential Humanity Note Chapter Eight Asylum after Empire Beyond Ahistoricity Racism, Man and Human, Coloniality/.Modernity References Index About the Author