Asylum and 'Home'

Thinking Allowed

BBC

Science, Society & Culture

4.4 • 973 Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Asylum and 'home' - the impact of asylum dispersal and Syrian refugees' quest for home. Laurie Taylor talks to Jonathan Darling, Associate Professor in Human Geography at Durham University, about the system of housing and support for asylum seekers and refugees in Britain, from the first outsourced asylum accommodation contracts in 2012 to the renewed wave of outsourcing pursued by the Home Office today. Drawing on six years of research into Britain's dispersal system, and foregrounding the voices and experiences of refugees and asylum seekers, he argues that dispersal has caused suffering and played a central role in the erasure of asylum from public concern.

Also, Vicki Squire, Professor of International Politics at the University of Warwick, discusses the narrative recollections of people who have survived the current Syrian War, only to confront the challenges of forced displacement and relocation, from the West Midlands to London, Canada. What is the meaning of home to those who are subjected to complex migratory journeys and carry memories of extended family, community and homeland in a conflict which has displaced half the population? How do refugees create home ‘away’ from home?

Producer: Jayne Egerton

Transcript

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0:00.0	Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of
0:07.0	Happiness Podcast.
0:08.0	For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want
0:14.4	to share that science with you.
0:16.1	And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley.
0:19.4	I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that
0:25.4	calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:30.3	BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.
0:36.8	This is a Thinking Loud Podcasts from the BBC and for more details and much, much more about thinking aloud, go to our website at BBC.co.uk.
0:47.6	Hello once again today's newspaper headlines are about the numbers of people crossing the channel in the hope of
0:54.3	obtaining asylum and about the possible ways in which these applications for refuge might be considered
1:01.1	as genuine. But this daily preoccupation with new arrivals and their status
1:07.0	can mean that we pay insufficient attention to the face of those applicants who are already
1:12.0	in this country and living in so-called
1:14.0	dispersal areas while they await a decision on their claim for asylum.
1:19.7	Under Section 95 of the 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act, these people can apply for
1:26.3	accommodation and subsistence support while waiting for that claim to be considered
1:31.1	provided that they satisfy a destitution test. A new book,
1:36.0	Systems of Suffering, Dispersal and the Denial of Asylum,
1:39.4	considers the evolution of this dispersal process and argues that it both sustains and
1:45.4	produces patterns of violence, suffering and social objection. Its author is Jonathan
1:51.7	Darling, associate professor in human geography at Durham University and Jonathan now joins me in the studio.
	...

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