Table Of Content‘Hanging In-Between’:
Experiences of Waiting among Asylum Seekers
Living in Glasgow
Rebecca Rotter
PhD in Social Anthropology
University of Edinburgh
2010
Table of Contents
Declaration………………………………………………………………………………...i
Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………ii
Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………...iii
Abbreviations……………………………………………………………………………..v
1. INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................... 1
Locating the research within the literature ......................................................................... 2
The causes of waiting ...................................................................................................... 12
The extent of waiting ........................................................................................................ 14
Research site ................................................................................................................... 15
Conceptualising types of migration and migrants ............................................................ 16
Methodology..................................................................................................................... 23
Ethical considerations ...................................................................................................... 40
Structure of the thesis ...................................................................................................... 47
2. ASYLUM LEGISLATION, POLICY AND PROCEDURES ..................................... 51
Introduction....................................................................................................................... 51
Recent trends in British legislation and policy.................................................................. 54
Understanding recent legislation and policy .................................................................... 56
Legislative and policy provisions...................................................................................... 64
The asylum process ......................................................................................................... 71
Concluding remarks ......................................................................................................... 81
3. ASYLUM SEEKERS' ACCOUNTS OF THE ASYLUM PROCESS ........................ 82
Introduction....................................................................................................................... 82
Beginnings........................................................................................................................ 84
The Problems................................................................................................................... 86
Flight, agents, and the determination of destination country ........................................... 88
Applying for asylum.......................................................................................................... 90
Appealing ......................................................................................................................... 92
Onward migration........................................................................................................... 105
Detention ........................................................................................................................ 106
Deportation and voluntary return ................................................................................... 110
Dispersal ........................................................................................................................ 113
The Home Office’s treatment of asylum seekers: hospitality and honour ..................... 118
Conceptualisations of the Home Office or ‘immigration’ ................................................ 121
Concluding remarks ....................................................................................................... 123
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4. CO-CREATING A SPACE OF SANCTUARY IN GLASGOW.............................. 124
Introduction..................................................................................................................... 124
Dispersal: the Scottish context and response................................................................ 126
Ralston Community Integration Project and Ralston Asylum Forum............................. 128
Tensions in asylum policies: the Scotland-UK distinction.............................................. 131
The locality of Ralston.................................................................................................... 134
RCIP/RAF staff, facilitators and participants.................................................................. 136
The social context of migration and dispersal................................................................ 139
RCIP/RAF as a conduit for social connections and a foundation for the construction
of ‘community’...................................................................................................... 144
A space of sanctuary...................................................................................................... 154
Concluding remarks ....................................................................................................... 158
5. THE METAPHYSICS OF WAITING..................................................................... 159
Introduction..................................................................................................................... 159
Waiting among asylum seekers as a particular kind of waiting ..................................... 159
The lived experience(s) of waiting ................................................................................. 164
Waiting for…‘A normal life’............................................................................................. 200
Concluding remarks ....................................................................................................... 202
6. ADAPTING, BELONGING AND STRUGGLING FOR THE RIGHT TO REMAIN. 204
Introduction..................................................................................................................... 205
The analytical framework ............................................................................................... 207
Private narratives and actions........................................................................................ 213
A public narrative of integration ..................................................................................... 226
Integration and the legacy case review.......................................................................... 233
Return............................................................................................................................. 236
Concluding remarks ....................................................................................................... 241
7. EPILOGUE: AFTER WAITING…......................................................................... 244
8. CONCLUSION..................................................................................................... 254
APPENDIX 1............................................................................................................ 257
BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................267
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Declaration
I declare that this thesis is entirely my own work and has not been submitted for any
other degree or professional qualification.
i
Abstract
This thesis explores the experiences of applicants for Refugee Status in the United
Kingdom who had, at the time of the research, waited for between two and nine years
for the conclusion of the asylum process. Despite extensive lamentation of the delays
endured by asylum applicants in having their claims assessed, little social scientific
scholarship has substantively and critically engaged with this phenomenon, or even
with waiting as a universal condition. The present study fills this gap in knowledge,
conceptualising waiting as an informative, consequential phase in the quest for
protection, hope and security.
The study is based on twelve months of participant observation among
asylum seekers living in Glasgow under the dispersal regime. Narratives and tacit
aspects of everyday life are presented to both draw a multi-dimensional ethnographic
picture and acknowledge the asylum seekers’ agency. Their waiting entails a focus
on negative and positive, concrete and symbolic objects, which are located in the
future. However, their inability to affect or predict the arrival of these objects
produces uncertainty and passivity. Asylum seekers narrate overwhelmingly negative
experiences of asylum policies, such as dishonouring encounters with immigration
authorities; social dislocation; enforced poverty; interrupted life cycles; and an
inability to settle and belong in the UK. Yet despite the mutually reinforcing effects
of UK policy and of waiting, asylum seekers have benefited from formal support
structures provided under Scottish policy. Individuals have been able to re-construct
social ties; pursue educational opportunities; enhance personal security; gain greater
control over their ‘cases’; and undertake selective socio-cultural adaptation. They
have also utilised a discourse of ‘integration’ circulating in Scotland to garner public
support for their struggles for recognition and the right to remain. The thesis
concludes by reflecting on changes occurring after a form of Leave to Remain was
granted, and assesses the extent to which people were able to realise the ‘normal
lives’ for which they had been waiting.
ii
Acknowledgements
I wish to acknowledge and express my deepest gratitude to all of the asylum
applicants who, in the process of this research, welcomed me into their lives and
graciously shared with me the joyful, the mundane and the most difficult of
experiences. Without their trust, commitment and courage, this research would not
have been possible. I particularly thank Manal*, Mohammed* & Nazahah*, Lila* &
Asad*, Sevda* & Maksim* for their openness and hospitality; Mudiwa*, Noor* and
Muwala Wange* for their friendship and laughter; and Karim* & Khadija* for
teaching me and offering me another home.
I greatly appreciate the kindness and respect that Jocelyn* and Fatima* have
extended towards me, and I am indebted to them for not only allowing me to conduct
fieldwork at Ralston Community Integration Project* but helping to make it such an
informative and rewarding experience. I also thank the facilitators of the Ralston
Asylum Forum*. I hope that what follows does justice to their honourable work.
I am extremely grateful for the constructive criticism, attention to detail and
encouragement of my supervisors, Professor Tony Good and Dr. Christina Boswell.
I have gained incommensurably from their insights, scholarship and wealth of
experience.
Throughout the PhD programme, I acquired new perspective on my work and
anthropology in general, from discussions with faculty staff and other PhD
candidates. I am appreciative of this and of their ongoing support.
I thank my friends, especially Angela, Anastassis, Brandi, Candice, Ginger,
Nolish and Sharon for sustaining me, and Tanya & Alan for their timely generosity.
I also thank Names for her enduring empathy and advice, and the inspirational
discussions.
My eternal gratitude goes to my family; to Ann for understanding, helping to
clarify things and sacrificing precious holiday time to proofread this thesis; Michael
& Sue for supporting me and providing the most comfortable circumstances in which
to write up; Ben for always looking after me; and Vesna, Cile & Andrey for their
faith and for deepening my understanding of some of the themes contained herein
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through their personal histories. Finally, I thank Yakov for being by my side at every
step of the way, i za negovata beskrajna ljubov i strplivost.
This research was generously funded by the Overseas Research Student
Awards Scheme; the University of Edinburgh College of Humanities and Social
Science; and the Sir Richard Stapley Educational Trust.
* Pseudonyms
iv
Abbreviations
AIT Asylum and Immigration Tribunal
APIs Asylum Policy Instructions
ARC Asylum Registration Card
BME Black and Minority Ethnic
CMR Case Management Review
CoSLA Convention of Scottish Local Authorities
ECHR European Convention on Human Rights
ESOL English for Speakers of Other Languages
EU European Union
GCC Glasgow City Council
HOPO Home Office Presenting Officer
IAT Immigration Appellate Authority
ILPA Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association
ILR Indefinite Leave to Remain
IND Immigration and Nationality Directorate
IOM International Organization for Migration
JCHR Joint Committee on Human Rights
LLR Limited Leave to Remain
MSP Member of Scottish Parliament
NAM New Asylum Model
NAO National Audit Office
NASS National Asylum Support Service
NGO Non-Governmental Organisation
NHS National Health Service
OISC Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner
PAIH Positive Action in Housing
RAF Ralston Asylum Forum
RAO Refugee Advocacy Organisation
RCO Refugee Community Organisation
RFRL Reasons for Refusal Letter
v
RCIP Ralston Community Integration Project
SEF Statement of Evidence Form
SRC Scottish Refugee Council
SRIF Scottish Refugee Integration Forum
UK United Kingdom
UKBA United Kingdom Border Agency
UNHCR (Office of the) United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
VARRP Voluntary Assisted Return and Reintegration Programme
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