4 Migrants, refugees and asylum seekers
-
Nadine El-Enany
Abstract
Chapter 4 examines the categories of refugee, migrant and asylum seeker in the context of the post-1981 newly conceptually and geographically configured Britain. People who were previously legally associated with the British polity with rights to enter Britain were now categorised as refugees, migrants and asylum seekers. The refugees and asylum seekers of today were the British subjects of yesterday, colonised, alienated and barred from access to wealth stolen from them. I show how courts function within a framework of state sovereignty in which they cannot challenge the legitimacy of Britain’s post-colonial articulation of its borders and their dispossessory effects for colonised populations.
Abstract
Chapter 4 examines the categories of refugee, migrant and asylum seeker in the context of the post-1981 newly conceptually and geographically configured Britain. People who were previously legally associated with the British polity with rights to enter Britain were now categorised as refugees, migrants and asylum seekers. The refugees and asylum seekers of today were the British subjects of yesterday, colonised, alienated and barred from access to wealth stolen from them. I show how courts function within a framework of state sovereignty in which they cannot challenge the legitimacy of Britain’s post-colonial articulation of its borders and their dispossessory effects for colonised populations.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- Preface viii
- Introduction 1
- 1 Bordering and ordering 17
- 2 Aliens 36
- 3 Subjects and citizens 73
- 4 Migrants, refugees and asylum seekers 133
- 5 European citizens and third country nationals 175
- Conclusion 219
- Notes 232
- Acknowledgements 290
- Index 294
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- Preface viii
- Introduction 1
- 1 Bordering and ordering 17
- 2 Aliens 36
- 3 Subjects and citizens 73
- 4 Migrants, refugees and asylum seekers 133
- 5 European citizens and third country nationals 175
- Conclusion 219
- Notes 232
- Acknowledgements 290
- Index 294
