Melanie Bethan Elaine Griffiths | University of Birmingham (original) (raw)

Papers by Melanie Bethan Elaine Griffiths

The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 2024

Thousands of people are deported from the UK every year, having served a sentence for a serious c... more Thousands of people are deported from the UK every year, having served a sentence for a serious criminal offence, it being determined that it is no longer in the public interest for them to remain in the UK. For those who are parents, they can appeal against deportation on grounds that it would breach their right to family life and have an unduly harsh impact on their children. Detailed guidance has emerged, setting out the factors that should be taken into account in determining this question in a manner that is compliant with children’s rights. Drawing on an in-depth analysis of a sample of deportation case files, this paper provides a unique empirical insight into the extent to which this guidance is applied in practice, with a particular reference to children’s rights principles and processes.

Journal of international migration and integration, Jul 9, 2024

Palgrave Macmillan Ltd., 2013

Men and Masculinities, Sep 11, 2015

In policy terms, “genuine” refugees are conceptualized as vulnerable, coerced victims, an image t... more In policy terms, “genuine” refugees are conceptualized as vulnerable, coerced victims, an image that does not reflect the realities of most male refugees and asylum seekers. Not only does the image conflict with dominant forms of masculinity, but as refused asylum seekers have their purported vulnerability rejected and honesty challenged as part of having their claim refused, there is an implicit conclusion that they are deceptive, opportunistic, or even criminal. The emblematic “bogus asylum seeker” figure is generally imagined to be male and is associated with gendered suspicions and expectations regarding agency. Concurrently, however, the asylum system operates various emasculating tendencies. Using testimonies from male refused asylum seekers, this article explores the interplay of gender and asylum law and policy, examining how individuals understand and negotiate their reconstruction from vulnerable would-be refugee to undeserving “bogus” asylum seeker. Gender is presented as an unspoken but critical dimension of this immigration category.

Journal of legal anthropology, Sep 1, 2013

Immigration detention is a central tenet of the British government's response to immigration but ... more Immigration detention is a central tenet of the British government's response to immigration but remains under-theorised in academia. This article uses testimonies drawn from anthropological research conducted with detainees at an Immigration Removal Centre to examine lived experiences of immigration detention and explore the relationships between detainees and the British state. It suggests that despite being a space of extreme control (both in terms of legislation and daily practice), immigration detention is beset with uncertainty and confusion. Examples are given of chronic instability in relation to mobility, violent 'incidents', time frames and access to information. The article examines the repercussions of such instability on individuals and coping strategies employed. It argues that immigration detainees live in a context of continual crisis, in which profound uncertainty becomes normalised. This disorder should be understood as a technique of power, with governance through uncertainty constructing certain immigrants as expendable, transient and ultimately, deportable.

cultural geographies, 2015

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2013

The verification of identity has been bound up in state attempts to control people’s mobility for... more The verification of identity has been bound up in state attempts to control people’s mobility for many centuries,1 but took on additional significance in the twentieth century, as a result of the World Wars, development of the European Union and relaxing of some internal European borders under the Schengen Agreement.2 By the beginning of the twenty-first century, identification demands in the UK and elsewhere had gone beyond specific arenas, such as international travel, to have pertinence throughout society. Amassing information about identifiers and creating reliable means of proving identity are now as much about banal commercialism as super-securitization, and are of concern to the private sector as much as public bodies.

Public Law Project. University of Exeter, Dec 17, 2020

Identification and Registration Practices in Transnational Perspective

migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk

... Non-governmental organizations and other groups estimate the number of child immigration deta... more ... Non-governmental organizations and other groups estimate the number of child immigration detainees to have been up to 2,000 per annum between 2005 and 2009 (Crawley and Lester 2005, 11 Million 2009, Sankey et al. 2010). ... Sankey, I., S. Farthing, and A. Coles. ...

Political Geography

The version presented here may differ from the published version. If citing, you are advised to c... more The version presented here may differ from the published version. If citing, you are advised to consult the published version for pagination, volume/issue and date of publication

The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 2024

Journal of international migration and integration, Jul 9, 2024

Palgrave Macmillan Ltd., 2013

Men and Masculinities, Sep 11, 2015

Journal of legal anthropology, Sep 1, 2013

cultural geographies, 2015

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2013

Public Law Project. University of Exeter, Dec 17, 2020

Identification and Registration Practices in Transnational Perspective

migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk

Political Geography

YouTube, 2021

On Tuesday 8 June 2021, Melanie Griffiths, The University of Birmingham and Bail for Immigration ... more On Tuesday 8 June 2021, Melanie Griffiths, The University of Birmingham and Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) hosted a live webinar "Excessively Cruel": Detention, deportation and separated families.

Families living with the pressure of insecure immigration status are likely to be poorer, sicker and unhappier than those with secure citizenship. A report, published by the University of Birmingham and the University of Bristol, calls on policy- and decision-makers to recognise the impacts of the immigration system on families with precarious status and take steps to ensure they are able to navigate the system more fairly.

Chaired by Baroness Shami Chakrabarti the webinar included an overview of the research and its main findings from project lead Dr Melanie Griffiths (University of Birmingham). The panel of speakers included;
- Rudy Schulkind from the NGO Bail for Immigration Detainees who presented research on the impact of immigration detention and deportation on British families
- Sonali Naik QC, a senior public law and immigration practitioner at Garden Court Chambers
- Ace Ruele Aristotles, a London-born actor and father who is fighting to remain in the UK

University of Pittsburgh, USA: ‘De-exceptionalizing Displacement? Precarity and Mobility’ workshop , 2019

Cross-border migrants are displaced on multiple fronts. Not only are they geographically ‘out of ... more Cross-border migrants are displaced on multiple fronts. Not only are they geographically ‘out of place’, but tend to be further displaced legally, politically, economically and temporally by the bureaucracies and decision-making of immigration systems in host countries. In the UK and elsewhere, a combination of increasingly exclusionary regulations, legislation and socio-political discourses are leading to growing disenfranchisement and demonisation of migrants, as they are pushed ever further outside mainstream society. This paper argues that the pool of people marginalised in the UK through immigration controls is growing as the categories ‘foreign’, ‘migrant’ and ‘illegal’ are expanded by a combination of policy developments; criminalisation of migration; increasingly expensive applications and appeal processes; ever stricter administration of the Immigration Rules; and growing xenophobia and discrimination. The paper argues that these forces of displacement relating to immigration status cannot be considered in isolation. Taking an intersectional approach, it looks at how precarious immigration status intersects with other forms of marginalisation, such as ethnicity and class. It does so by analyzing four key recent developments: the 2006 ‘foreign criminal’ outcry, 2012 introduction of the police/Home Office initiative Operation Nexus, the 2012 launch of the officially-titled ‘hostile environment’ and the 2018 Windrush scandal. Drawing on these examples, the paper advocates for an approach that de-exceptionalises cross-border migration in order to make connections with other forms of displacement that operate above questions of citizenship and migration.

COMPAS (Oxford), Mobility and Migration Research Day, 2019

The Social Life of Deportation Regimes Conference, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, 2018

The UK is experiencing a period of particularly intense debate over the content and limits of Bri... more The UK is experiencing a period of particularly intense debate over the content and limits of British citizenship as well as rising xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment. Over the last decade, the British immigration system has become increasingly exclusionary and punitive, driven by Prime Minister Theresa May’s six years as Home Secretary (2010-16), and catalysts such as the 2006 media outcry over the release of foreign national offenders at the end of their prison sentences. In the last few years, the logic of immigration control and deportation infiltrated much of British society and politics. Launched in 2012, the officially-titled ‘hostile environment’ (since rebranded the ‘compliant environment’), set out to make everyday life in the UK unbearable for irregular migrants. An array of new policies work to devolve responsibility for immigration policing away from Home Office officials, to a wide range of government departments, public bodies, organisations and private individuals. Lecturers, teachers, doctors, employers, marriage registrars, employees of banks and the driver licencing authorities, police officers and landlords are now required to share people’s data with the Home Office, conduct immigration checks and deny services to people suspected of having irregular immigration status. This paper examines these new spaces of immigration enforcement and questions their effectiveness, impact and costs.

The social life of time: power, discrimination and transformation University of Edinburgh , 2018

Drawing on long-term anthropological research with precarious male migrants, this paper explores ... more Drawing on long-term anthropological research with precarious male migrants, this paper explores the changing temporal conditions, restrictions and opportunities embedded in British immigration regulations. It presents the immigration rules as designed and operating through a system of ‘temporal governance’, evident from temporal rewards, such as visas permitting pockets of British timespace, to temporal hurdles that can make possible, or instantly nullify, immigration applications and challenges. The paper argues that the importance of lived time, legally acknowledged through the right to respect of one’s private and family life, is increasingly devalued and delegitimised in favour of less ‘democratically’ available considerations. A financially-informed concept of ‘integration’, I suggest, is gaining weight over claims to belong based on time spent in the country and social embeddedness, with a recent doubling of the length of time irregular immigrants need to be in the UK before gaining settlement. The paper concludes by arguing that a multitude of senses of time run through the immigration rules: from a bureaucratic, measurable time, to a phenomenological sense of lived time, linear progressive time, monstrously circular time, and time as a commodity that is accumulated, lost and stolen.

AAG, New Orleans, 2018

Migration scholars are used to operating in a complicated arena. We face numerous methodological ... more Migration scholars are used to operating in a complicated arena. We face numerous methodological and ethical questions: from the nature and purpose of our research findings, to the networks and research paths that we use to reach them. Such questions take on particular importance today, at a time of rapid advancement of mainstreamed xenophobia and exclusionary border controls. I argue that such tumultuous geopolitics demonstrate that we - academics and campaigners - need to move beyond our usual responses, recognising that (at best) the pace of change has been too slow and piecemeal, or only provided relief for a handful of individuals. Now is the time for us critically examine our failure to significantly influence the direction of political travel, and to strategise for a more effective future. In this talk, I question what obligation we have to actively problematise the field we study: from questioning politico-legal rhetoric and administrative classification (such as the migrant/refugee binary), to practically challenging immigration enforcement mechanisms. Using the example of campaigning against immigration detention in the UK, I argue for a sector that goes further than simply documenting the harm of border controls, to be actively engaged towards achieving meaningful systemic change.

VU, Amsterdam, 2018

Time is intrinsic to the functioning of States, with migration bureaucracies and legislation perv... more Time is intrinsic to the functioning of States, with migration bureaucracies and legislation pervaded with temporal hurdles and punishments. The talk presents observations of an immigration legal hearing heard at an English hearing centre of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal in 2012, to examine the temporal conditions, restrictions and opportunities embedded in recent changes to British immigration regulations targetting ‘deportable’ migrants. Examining the arguments of the Home Office and Appellant's barrister through a temporal lens provides new insights into recent changes to the immigration system aimed at speeding and easing deportation. Both implicitly and explicitly, temporal governance is woven into these developments in immigration policy and primary legislation. The court observations illustrate the operation of these changes in temporal terms, with the talk arguing that in order to make certain ('undesirable') migrants deportable, government-directed changes to the interpretation of Article 8 of the ECHR delegitimise their lived time, by devaluing their rights to respect of their private and family life. The talk suggests that this occurs in uneven ways, with deportability, desirability and criminality all demonstrably racialised, classed and gendered. Moreover, it argues that the policy changes undermine the more ‘democratically’-available grounds for asserting claims to 'belong' or remain to the UK, such as relationships, children and time, for more financially and ethnically-informed considerations around integration, work, culture and English-language proficiency. The talk also shows how the opposing sides play with tenses in making their arguments; clashing in what emphasis on the past, present or future they direct the Immigration Judge to put, especially around criminal offending and family life. This example offers an insight into the negotiation of ‘temporal governance', with the court-based interpretation and application of the Immigration Rules and Immigration Acts showing how state power is operated - and challenged - through temporal devices, and what a multitude of senses of time are employed in so doing.

University of Bern, Switzerland: The Migration Regime & the Law workshop, 2018

Migration scholars have long neglected the temporal dimension, despite a long-standing recognitio... more Migration scholars have long neglected the temporal dimension, despite a long-standing recognition of the importance of time for structuring social experience and bureaucratic practice, as well as the degree of cross-cultural variation of perceptions of time. This article addresses the neglect by drawing on observations of a UK-based immigration legal hearing to examine the temporal conditions, restrictions and opportunities embedded in recent changes to immigration regulations targetting ‘deportable’ migrants. It argues that the immigration system apparatus draw upon multiple senses of time, from bureaucratic, measurable time, to a phenomenological sense of lived time, a linear progressive time, monstrously circular time, and as a commodity that can be accumulated, lost and stolen. The paper argues that the immigration rules operate through ‘temporal governance’, evident in the complicated temporal hurdles that serve to make possible, or instantly nullify, immigration applications. Although temporal language and tools are common within bureaucracies and legal systems, it is argued that there is a particularly active (and in many cases explicit) reliance on temporal logics in recent immigration policy changes aimed at boosted deportation figures. Observation of an appeal is used to suggest that 2012 changes to the immigration rules should be understood through the prism of time, including as tools that are delegitimising lived time by devaluing the rights to respect of one’s private and family life, in favour of less ‘democratically’-available, financially-informed considerations; and that variously place the focus on the past, present or future in attempts to ease and accelerate the deportation process.

University of Amsterdam, Netherlands: ‘Critical Minds on Ethics and Crisis’ workshop, 2018

The language of ‘crisis’ has become commonplace in migration and asylum messaging, be it by polit... more The language of ‘crisis’ has become commonplace in migration and asylum messaging, be it by politicians, journalists, NGOs or academics. ‘Crisis’ rhetoric, however, is deeply problematic. It decontextualizes current developments from their historical and political roots and helps sustain the myth that human mobility is a modern and abnormal phenomenon and can be ‘managed’. The creation and securitisation of the ‘migration crisis’ label is also productive; creating a threatening outside ‘Other’ by which to define and orientate the self against (and thus may reflect the EU’s own - political and existential - ‘crisis’). By appealing to ‘crisis’ logic in framing our research proposals and funding applications, we participate in this problematic discourse, as well as risk perpetuating unhelpful categories and divisive binaries, and contributing to the exoticisation and festishisation of ‘the Migrant’. And yet, the contemporary climate of near-obsession with migration makes the ‘crisis’ labelling tempting, offering research project ideas and funding, political and media attention, charitable donations, etc. Although deeply problematic, the language of ‘migration’ and a framing focused on exceptionality has become an effective and fundable tool for those working with mobile populations – be they NGOs or academics.

At this time of spreading border walls and violence, migration scholars face particularly urgent ethical questions about the purpose and effectiveness of their work, their obligations to social justice, engagement with non-academic partners and their use of exceptionalising or divisive rhetoric, logic or categories. This paper starts by making the case for urgency by situating the current moment in recent developments, before turning to critical questions for migration researchers and ending on some reflections on ethically navigating the field.

As a key site of the construction of the nation, mixed-race families in the UK have long been pro... more As a key site of the construction of the nation, mixed-race families in the UK have long been problematized and scrutinised. Colonial-era management of relationships between British subjects and colonised ‘others’ provide abundant examples of this, including in rules and provisions that were highly gendered, classed and racialized. Although now usually less explicit, such discourses and biases are echoed in Britain’s current concern with ‘mixed-status’ families (whose members have different immigration statues from each other). These relationships have emerged as a contemporary space for debating national identity, and are a major focus of immigration reduction policies. Legislation introduced over the last few years attempt to constrict the number of migrant family members entering the UK, whilst simultaneously increasing the expulsion of those already present. In order to explore the human impact of the changing rhetoric and policies in this area, this talk introduces qualitative research that I am leading at the University of Bristol. The research project focuses on a particular form of mixed-status families: those consisting of British or EEA national women in relationship with men whose immigration status in the UK is irregular or precarious. The talk draws on informal interviews with couples and practitioners, coupled with observations of deportation appeals, to examine the impact of the immigration system on the female partners. As will be illustrated with case studies, despite not being directly subject to immigration control, these women nonetheless find that the immigration system stretches deep into their intimate lives, with significant impacts on their relationships and gender roles. By looking at the ways in which they resist or negotiate attempts to remove their partners from the UK, I will consider the women’s conceptualisations of, and attempts to mobilise, their citizenship privileges, and the repercussions of these immigration battles on their own feelings of identity, belonging and stability in the UK. As I argue, although often overlooked, the fervent political preoccupation with the deportation of unwanted non-citizens has growing implications for citizens, with the family arising as a critical site for these struggles over the boundaries of belonging.

In an attempt to contribute to migration scholars’ long-standing neglect of questions about time,... more In an attempt to contribute to migration scholars’ long-standing neglect of questions about time, this talk examines the changing temporal conditions, restrictions and opportunities embedded in British immigration regulations affecting ‘deportable’ migrants. Drawing on analysis of recent legislative changes, coupled with semi-structured interviews conducted with deportable migrants, their citizen partners and practitioners working in the field, the presentation questions the contested place of time in immigration enforcement measures. It argues that recent policy developments undermine the claim to normative belonging based on length of time spent in the country, whilst simultaneously speeding up processes of expulsion. Under the 2014 Immigration Act, for example, the temporal basis for belonging is being replaced by grounds that are biased in terms of socio-economic position, language skills and access to the labour market. Financially informed assessments of ‘integration’ have replaced more ‘democratic’ claims to belong based on length of time of presence in the country, whatever the person’s legal status. Alongside the diminishing importance of time in shoring up arguments to belong, other changes are being brought in with the explicit aim of speeding up deportation. For example, the ‘deport first, appeal later’ rules introduced in the 2014 Immigration Act and extended by the 2015 Immigration Bill, enable the Home Office to remove people from the UK before their appeal against the decision to deport has been heard, with implications for the intersection of space-time with legal protections. In addition, the length of prison sentence required to initiate deportation proceedings has been steadily decreasing over the last decade and most recently, has been removed entirely under Operation Nexus, in favour of removal based on potential future criminality.
By examining the techniques of temporal management embedded within recent legislative changes affecting ‘deportable’ migrants, the talk exposes evolving deployment of temporal dimensions such as speed, lengths of time and the contested balance between the value of the past, present and future. By juxtaposing these with the lived experiences of those directly implicated, the talk explores the logic, operationalisation, and negotiation of time as part of the management of deportation and migration-related precarity.

Mixed nationality families have long existed at the contested boundaries of the nation state. In ... more Mixed nationality families have long existed at the contested boundaries of the nation state. In the UK, immigration authorities have historically sought to regulate such relationships through immigration and nationality policies that were explicitly sexist (and arguably racist). Although contemporary processes of exclusion are no longer as obviously discriminatory, we can still observe gender and other biases influencing those migrants and citizens affected. This paper considers the various means by which irregular male migrants in the UK have their family lives challenged and identities as husbands and fathers undermined as opportunistic, fictive or sacrificial. Drawing on qualitative research conducted as part of a three year ESRC-funded project based at the University of Bristol, the paper focuses on mixed-citizenship families consisting of precarious male migrants with British or EEA national partners or children. The men represent a wide range of nationalities and immigration experiences, but are nonetheless united in having an insecure immigration status and uncertain future in the UK, despite their close ties to citizen women and children. They also all occupy a contentious and politicised legal space in which the State’s attempts to define the boundaries of national belonging and protect ‘the public interest’ are said to require the men’s forced exclusion. The paper considers how gender, along with ethnicity, class and other identity variables, are operationalised and/or silenced in the messy process of deporting male migrants intimately connected to citizens.

Generally speaking, the issues seen to relate to irregular male migrants tend to be restricted to... more Generally speaking, the issues seen to relate to irregular male migrants tend to be restricted to those of legality, criminality and mobility. These men’s emotional lives are usually overlooked completely, dismissed as having been opportunistically established in order to circumvent immigration controls, or devalued as sacrificial to ‘the public good’. Drawing on qualitative research conducted with UK-based precarious male migrants and their British citizen or EEA national partners, as part of a three year ESRC-funded project based at the University of Bristol, this talk considers the gendered tensions and negotiations arising for mixed-immigration status families as a result of immigration enforcement measures. This includes issues around power, shame and changing gender roles within families as a result of immigration detention, a prohibition against work and other aspects of the immigration system. I will argue that having family ties in the UK has significant and gendered impact on irregular male migrants’ experience of being deportable, with a conflict often existing between their obligations to their families and the Home Office. As will be demonstrated, a major discrepancy exists between the authorities and families when it comes to valuing the intimate lives and gender roles of irregular male migrants.

This paper considers the impact of immigration policies on a certain form of ‘mixed’ family in th... more This paper considers the impact of immigration policies on a certain form of ‘mixed’ family in the UK, ones involving citizens and precarious male migrants. Mixed by citizenship and immigration status (and often ethnicity), these couples face the most extreme side of the immigration system, that of enforcement. Although their migration journeys and immigration statuses may vary considerably, the men all have uncertain and precarious stay in the UK and are at risk of (or in the process of being) forced to leave the country. Living as a ‘deportable’ person affects the totality of a person’s life: from the liminality, poverty, uncertainty and anxiety of irregular or precarious stay (for example, under the ‘hostile environment’, irregular migrants cannot work, claim support, rent homes, drive cars or access services), to the violence of removal (raids, immigration detention, deportation, etc). The impact on family members, is also often enormous. Even if they are citizens, and therefore not themselves subject to immigration control, partners and children (and parents and others), are acutely, even if indirectly, affected by the border controls being operationalised in their name. The whole family find their everyday lives interrupted, futures unpredictable, and families challenged and potentially dismantled by the state.

This paper speaks directly to the panel’s themes of political subjectivity and social citizenship... more This paper speaks directly to the panel’s themes of political subjectivity and social citizenship, by analysing qualitative research that I am currently conducting with couples and families in the UK consisting of irregular male migrants and British citizens. So – men without stable immigration status in the UK, who are at risk of deportation. And their British-born, citizen partners (so far all women), who are obviously not subject to immigration control.
Drawing on a range of qualitative data methods, including informal interviews and observation of immigration hearings, the paper considers how these demonised and precarious male non-citizens articulate a right to remain in the UK as ‘Almost Citizens’, as well as the ways in which the State – currently focused on increasing deportation figures – counters such rhetoric and works to restrict the grounds by which belonging can be claimed. I will conclude the paper by briefly examining the impacts of these disputes on the British citizens in relationships with these men, in particular, the impact on their own senses of belonging and citizenship, which I will argue, results in a form of civic estrangement.

For academics, politicians and NGOs alike, the issues seen to relate to irregular male migrants t... more For academics, politicians and NGOs alike, the issues seen to relate to irregular male migrants tend to revolve around questions of legality, criminality and mobility. Little concern is generally afforded to the men’s emotional lives, except for a pervasive suspicion that any family life is cynically and opportunistically established in order to circumvent immigration controls. Drawing on qualitative research conducted with UK-based precarious male migrants and their British citizen or EEA national girlfriends and wives as part of a three year ESRC-funded project based at the University of Bristol, this talk considers the discrepancy between how the men and immigration officials value and construe these relationships. It explores the effect of having family ties in the UK on the men’s experience of the immigration system, as well as the impact of immigration insecurity on the formation and sustainability of family life. Case studies of mixed-status families are provided in order to explore how immigration precarity and enforcement measures conflict with the men’s performance of fatherhood and partnership, and how such tensions affect their sense of self. Particular attention is given to immigration detention and the prohibition of employment as examples of ways in which the immigration system reaches into the heart of family life and produce gendered implications for irregular migrant men’s ability to be the parents and partners they wish to be.

The British authorities have long sought to regulate the relationships of its citizens to other n... more The British authorities have long sought to regulate the relationships of its citizens to other nationals. Although such regulations are no longer as explicitly sexist (and arguably racist) as they once were, we can still observe biases in terms of those citizens and non-citizens affected. This paper considers the impact of changing immigration rules and regulations on UK-based couples and families facing the threat or reality of immigration enforcement measures such as immigration detention and removal or deportation. Drawing on qualitative research conducted as part of a three year ESRC-funded project based at the University of Bristol, the paper focuses on multi-citizenship families consisting of a precarious male migrant and a British or EEA national partner or child. The men have a variety of nationalities and immigration experiences, but are united in having an insecure immigration status and uncertain future in the UK. They all also occupy a contentious and politicised legal space in which the State’s immigration enforcement goals and intent to protect the ‘public interest’, are considered to be in conflict with provisions safeguarding human rights and the ‘best interest of the child’. In examining these tensions and legal and practical negotiations, the paper acknowledges that immigration regulations not only affect non-citizens, but also directly and significantly affect those citizens that they are tied to by blood or affection. As such, the paper considers how immigration regulation intrudes upon the intimate lives of both citizens and migrants, and how gender, ethnicity, class, immigration status (and sometimes a criminal record) are operationalised and/or silenced as part of these negotiations over the boundaries of belonging.

For academics, politicians and NGOs alike, the issues seen to relate to irregular migrants, espec... more For academics, politicians and NGOs alike, the issues seen to relate to irregular migrants, especially if they are male, tend to revolve around questions of legality, criminality and mobility. Their emotional lives are generally side-lined, except for a pervasive suspicion of their misuse of Article 8 rights protecting one’s private and family lives. Drawing on qualitative research conducted with UK-based precarious male migrants with British or EU citizen partners, this paper considers the effect of having family ties in the UK on the men’s experience of the immigration system, as well as the impact of immigration concerns on family life itself. Aspects of life without a secure immigration status, such as the prohibition against employment and the threat or reality of immigration detention, have repercussions for the formation and sustainability of partnerships and families, including in terms of suspicion over motives, enforced separation and other relationship strains. Laying bare the fallacy of migrant/citizen binaries, the paper demonstrates that the impacts not only affect irregular migrants, but extend to the citizens close to them. These women are not themselves subject to immigration control, but find their lives nonetheless shaped by immigration objectives, with implications for their senses of security, privilege and belonging as citizens. As such, the paper argues that the immigration system reaches into the heart of mixed-citizenship families, producing gendered implications for both migrants’ and citizens’ ability to be the parents and partners they wish to be.

Verfassungsblog, 2021

Shocking new legislation currently going through the UK parliament includes controversial powers ... more Shocking new legislation currently going through the UK parliament includes controversial powers to strip British citizens of their citizenship without notification, even if they hold no other citizenship and risk being made stateless. Opponents say such powers would be draconian and in violation of international law. The numbers of people potentially affected are huge, at almost 10% of the population. Moreover, there are clear racialised biases, with ethnic minorities and those of migrant heritage predominantly at risk. Citizenship seems no longer to be an inviolable status of rights and protection, but more and more a conditional and insecure privilege.
https://verfassungsblog.de/stateless-without-notifictaion/

Free Movement, 2018

New research shows that the immigration insecurity of one family member now affects whole familie... more New research shows that the immigration insecurity of one family member now affects whole families, including children and citizens who are not themselves subject to immigration control, writes Dr Melanie Griffiths of the University of Bristol.
This week, the University of Bristol published three policy briefings arising from new research examining the intersection of family life and immigration insecurity. Between 2014 and 2017, social researchers followed around 30 affected couples, in addition to interviewing practitioners from the state, legal, NGO and private sectors, and observing dozens of deportation appeals and other immigration hearings.

The Conversation, 2018

Couples are being subjected to painful separations, uncertainty about their future and financial ... more Couples are being subjected to painful separations, uncertainty about their future and financial hardship by the UK’s strict immigration rules, according to our new research.
Between 2014 and 2017, we followed nearly 30 couples where the man had irregular or insecure immigration status in the UK but his partner or children were citizens of Britain or the European Economic Area (EEA).
While the partners and children were exempt from British immigration controls, the men – who came from countries as varied as Afghanistan and the US – had extremely precarious immigration status in the UK. This could have been due to temporary or overstayed visas, refused asylum claims, criminal records or because they entered the country illegally. This prohibits them from working, makes them vulnerable to immigration detention and expulsion, and subjects them to the everyday restrictions of Britain’s expanding “hostile environment” for migrants.

Border Criminologies, University of Oxford, 2018

‘They never told me when you come to England that you can’t have a girlfriend and you can’t have ... more ‘They never told me when you come to England that you can’t have a girlfriend and you can’t have a baby. They never told me, no one told me. Even if they had told me, come on, it is life.’
(Undocumented father)

The Conversation, 2017

New evidence suggests that where an asylum seeker ends up in Britain could have a significant imp... more New evidence suggests that where an asylum seeker ends up in Britain could have a significant impact on the likelihood that they are granted refugee protection, regardless of whether their life is in danger. From an Afghan child fleeing forced recruitment into the Taliban, to a Ugandan lesbian fleeing police violence, geography seems to be affecting the justice process that asylum seekers often depend upon for their safety and their lives.

COMPAS, 2016

Earlier this week my friend Amir and I went to a prison near Oxford to visit our mutual friend, M... more Earlier this week my friend Amir and I went to a prison near Oxford to visit our mutual friend, Musa, who is serving a prison sentence of a few months for handling stolen goods. It’s a low security, small prison and, according to Musa, as prisons go it’s not that bad. But this prison is unusual. This prison only incarcerates foreigners, meaning that its social and legal functions go beyond ‘simply’ punishing and rehabilitating offenders.
The realisation that something special is going on begins during the long process of entering the prison for a visit. Standing outside the gates with the friends and families, the diversity of languages and passports on show are striking. Once inside, there is a heavy air of dread hanging over the visits hall, despite most of the men’s short sentences and light offences. The threat of deportation is ever present, because prisons like this one operate through a dual logic of criminal justice and migration management.

Open Democracy, 2016

The British state has regulated relationships between its citizens and certain foreigners since a... more The British state has regulated relationships between its citizens and certain foreigners since at least the Colonial era. Today’s border controls continue to police people’s intimate lives and retain sexist and racist assumptions.

Blog post for the #Unlocked15 Detention Forum 'twitter tour' of detention

COMPAS/Border Criminologies blog, Jun 26, 2015

Unlocking Detention Blog, Detention Forum, Dec 18, 2014

Border Criminologies, Oct 10, 2014

Open Democracy, Oct 7, 2014

COMPAS Blog, Oxford University, Aug 6, 2014

COMPAS Blog Post, Aug 28, 2013