Firm and fair? Bureaucracy, asylum policy, and everyday border work in the English Channel

近年来，英吉利海峡的“小船”渡海引起了英国政界和媒体的极大关注。2020年夏天，在新冠肺炎疫情最严重的时候，内政部发起了一场新的运动，反对这些企图，为史无前例的进一步边境军事化支出以及拟议中的庇护政策“全面改革”奠定了基础，这项政策的标题为“坚定而公平”。到目前为止，英国在管理盎格鲁-佛朗哥边境地区方面扮演的角色，包括英吉利海峡的事态发展，在经验上的接触有限。需要进一步的学术工作来提高对使用这一路线的寻求庇护者在政策上是如何构建的，为什么，以及这与他们在当地的日常待遇之间的关系的理解。这项拟议的研究询问了政客、政策制定者和内政部内部的操作人员如何在这个领域构建、证明和实施这个“问题”和他们自己的行动。它问：该频道的政客、政策制定者和运营人员如何介绍和理解当代内政部的干预措施？南海岸的边境政策是如何制定的？这种当代的边境工作在哪些方面与英国移民管理的长期工作有关？在跨学科方法中将使用三种定性方法。首先，当代话语分析将追踪官方频道随着时间的推移的政策和话语，以及确定和探索的比较历史案例研究。其次，精英半结构化访谈将探讨政策制定者如何理解他们自己的工作，以及如何就围绕“小船”的相互冲突的利益/逻辑进行谈判。第三，边防部队的民族志将探索政策是如何在当地被翻译、理解和颁布的。这项研究将有助于三个主要的文学主体。第一，关于在官僚权力机构内工作的行政和社会实践的跨学科文献。其次，关于边防工作的文学，既有论述的，也有行动的。第三，研究当代边境工作与英国移民管理的殖民/种族主义历史之间的联系的学术研究。考虑到准入、复杂性和庞大规模的问题，理解官僚机构的任务并不容易。然而，作为学者，我们有必要寻求在这些权力的“黑匣子”中推进工作过程的知识。这项研究试图通过内政部及其参与者这一未被充分研究的视角，及时为英国的移民管理知识做出贡献。因此，内政部内的参与者以及非政府组织和倡导组织都会对此感兴趣。

'Small boat' crossings of the English Channel have attracted significant British political/media attention in recent years. In summer 2020, the Home Office launched a renewed campaign against these attempts at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, laying the groundwork for both unprecedented further spending on border militarisation, and the proposed asylum policy' overhaul' under the rubric 'firm and fair'. To date, there has been limited empirical engagement with the British role in governing the Anglo-Franco borderland, including developments in the Channel. Further academic work is needed to improve understandings not just of how asylum seekers using this route are constructed in policy, and why, but how this relates to their everyday treatment on the ground.This proposed research asks how politicians, policymakers and operational staff within the Home Office construct, justify and enact, both the 'problem' and their own actions, in this space. It asks: How are contemporary Home Office interventions in the Channel presented and understood by its politicians, policymakers, and operational staff? How are border policies enacted on the South Coast? In what ways does this contemporary border work relate to the longue durée of British Immigration 'management'? Three qualitative methods will be used in an interdisciplinary approach. Firstly, contemporary discourse analysis will track official Channel policies and discourse over time, and comparative historical case-studies identified and explored. Secondly, elite semi-structured interviews will probe how policymakers make sense of their own work and negotiate competing interests/logics surrounding 'small boats'. Thirdly, ethnography with Border Force will explore how policies are translated, understood and enacted on the ground.This research will contribute to three main bodies of literature. Firstly, cross-disciplinary literature on the administrative and social practices at work within bureaucratic institutions of power. Secondly, literature on border work, both discursive and enacted. And thirdly, scholarship which examines links between contemporary border work and colonial/racialized histories of British migration management.The task of understanding bureaucratic institutions is not an easy one given issues of access, complexity, and sheer size. It is, however, necessary that as scholars we seek to advance knowledge of the processes at work within these 'black boxes' of power. This research seeks to add a timely contribution to knowledge about migration management in the UK, through the understudied lens of the Home Office and its actors. As such, it will be of interest both to actors within the Home Office, and to NGOs and advocacy organisations.