Enlisting the Public in the Policing of Immigration

Abstract

full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. Publisher statement:This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in British Journal of Criminology following peer review. The version of record is available online at: http://bjc.oxfordjournals.org/content/55/2/215 A note on versions:The version presented here may differ from the published version or, version of record, if you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the 'permanent WRAP url' above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription. As border policing is no longer circumscribed to external borders and increasingly performed inland, in Britain migration work relies on the assistance of a range of unorthodox partners, including the public. The unearthing of the 'community' as a crucial partner to police a myriad of public safety issues, including migration, begs the question of what are the implications of mobilizing citizenship for law enforcement? This paper argues that enlisting the public in migration law enforcement yields important civic by-products: it 'creates' citizens and citizenship. It imparts civic training by instilling a sense of civic responsibility in law and order maintenance, and in doing so it intends to recreate social cohesion across a deeply fragmented society.

Lost in Translation? Examining the Role of Court Interpreters in Cases Involving Foreign National Defendants in England and Wales

“…In Britain, the provision of language services in the criminal justice system is intimately bound up with the highly politicized environment surrounding crime and immigration (Bhui, 2007;Bosworth & Guild, 2008;Canton & Hammond, 2012;Aas & Bosworth, 2013, Aliverti, 2015Bosworth, 2016) and the widespread concern across Europe that ''immigration may put further pressure on the public purse'' (OECD, 2013, p. 11). In this political environment, the demand for interpreting services in criminal justice proceedings-and the costs associated with this service-are not free from discourses that frame foreign nationals and ethnic and linguistic minorities as unwelcome and a burden on the system.…”

When Your Kind Cannot Live Here: How Generic Language and Criminal Sanctions Shape Social Categorization

“…Generic language thus bolsters category structures by lowering the tipping point for identification. Extrapolating to the real world, governments calling on citizens to report suspected “non-citizens” (Aliverti, 2015) may lead to misidentifications based on minimal proof. Examples include taunting “build that wall” to an opposing team based solely on ethnicity (Holley, 2016), and a passenger alerting airline security because her seatmate was writing in a suspicious language, math (Rampell, 2016).…”

“…In the midst of this global refugee crisis, governments have called upon their citizens to report suspected illegal immigrants (Aliverti, 2015), resulting in searches, harassment, and threats of jail and deportation solely because individuals exhibit traits believed to be characteristic of non-citizens (e.g., physical or behavioral attributes; Holley, 2016; Lyons, 2016; Potok, 2016). Children’s and adults’ perceptions of who is a non-citizen may relate to how they learn about, and thus, conceptualize that social group.…”

The Duty to Disobey Immigration Law

“…Certain governments have penalized private citizens for providing any form of shelter to unauthorized migrants (Jain 2010). (iii) Banks in Britain are required to check the immigration status of customers and deny access to bank accounts to people who are unable to prove their regular status (Aliverti 2015). (iv) Companies in the United States and most of Europe are forbidden from transporting unauthorized migrants and sometimes need to screen their passengers to satisfy this requirement (Guiraudon 2006).…”