Deportation stakeholders' perceptions of their respective roles and agency in relation to the deportation of refused asylum seekers from the UK

• Main Author: Tyler, Pip
• Other Authors: Geddes, Andrew ; Sporton, Deborah
• Published: University of Sheffield 2016
• Subjects: 320
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.718819

This thesis asks: How do different 'deportation stakeholders' discuss and perceive their respective places within deportation structures and environments? Using an inductive, qualitative approach, it examines the perspectives of people with different stakes in deportation practice about deportation and about the possibilities for change to deportation outcomes through their own agency and that of others. The research involved a scoping survey, purposive and snowball sampling. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 42 individuals in the UK and Italy: 11 'policy actors' were professionals with potentially direct influences upon deportation discourse, policy and practice; 7 'deportees' were administratively-removed asylum seekers; 24 'supporters' maintained contact with deportees. Interview data was supplemented with material gathered opportunistically. Stories of 86 deportations were identified. Initial findings fed into further analysis through a grounded approach. The thesis reveals that discussions of deportation and perceptions of choices and opportunities to exercise agency and moral responsibility within deportation systems vary with the type of actor and the frame(s) they use in relation to different moments in the deportation process. The thesis makes four contributions to knowledge: • It develops a new set of conceptual tools to support analysis of deportation discussions and perspectives, including three participant frames ('bureaucracy', 'international interdependence', and 'human'). • It introduces UK residents as 'supporters' of deportees who are also deportation stakeholders. • Methodologically, it focuses on a range of deportation stakeholders' voices that are linked by one context: the UK as a deporting state. The thesis also presents ways of researching hard-to-reach groups through intermediaries. • It reveals new relationships between deportees, supporters and states. This includes supporters' resistance to domestic policy implementation, while deportee-supporter transnational relationships can maintain deportees' bonds with the UK.