Clients and Coercions: An ethnographic study of how knowledge and power impact the well-being of children and lawyers in the asylum system

委托人和胁迫：关于知识和权力如何影响庇护系统中儿童和律师福祉的人种学研究

• 批准号: 2727680
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2727680
• 关键词: Clients; Coercions; ethnographic; study; how

This PhD research project looks to undertake a detailed study of how the lawyer/client relationship operates in the case of children who seek asylum in their own right, and understand how the relationship is affected by the construction of childhood applied in immigration law. It will also consider whether this relationship could be improved by greater application of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The rhetoric regarding small boat arrivals and the demands by the Home Office for increased 'rigour' in the age assessment of unaccompanied children are anything but welcoming. At the same time, there are concerns regarding poor mental health among social welfare lawyers; immigration lawyers in particular. They have also found themselves at the sharp end of political debate.Immigration law is one of the few areas of law in which those aged under 18 directly instruct lawyers to act on their behalf. However, it provides few of the procedural safeguards available in other areas of law - there are no specialist youth courts, nor are lawyers required to be separately accredited to represent children, as in family law. This is despite the potential for asylum claims to be life or death decisions or the extreme vulnerability of children claiming asylum in their own right. There seems to be an unspoken assumption that unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are independent, resilient and can be treated in the same way as adults seeking asylum. This project looks to consider how the power that is linked to legal expertise is applied through the lawyer client relationship as this operates in the case of lone children who are seeking sanctuary. This will be explored using the following sub-questions:i. Why does immigration law not afford children who are seeking sanctuary the same procedural protection as children in other proceedings?ii. What are the structural contexts that impact legal practice in terms of funding (Legal Aid) and procedural (Asylum law and procedure) requirements?iii. How does the conception of childhood applied in immigration law impact the practices and wellbeing of lawyers representing children who seek sanctuary alone in England and Wales?iv. Could approaches to legal practice centred on the UNCRC (Article 3: best interests; Article 5: the right to adult guidance; Article 12: voice of the child; Article 16: right to privacy) move the relationship to less coercive modes.To address these questions the PhD will integrate approaches from human geography and legal anthropology and consider how this tension manifests in legal practice. The candidate is a practicing immigration lawyer, with training in sociological research methodologies. She is well placed with insider understandings of not only asylum law, but the professional cultures of lawyers. It has additionally been suggested that those within the system are those best placed to challenge it. The central part of the research will be an ethnography based on time spent embedded in a charity that supports asylum seekers (Gloucester Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers). The candidate will work alongside a staff member specialising in supporting unaccompanied children. By working in this way, the writer will be able to build relationships of trust before making requests to observe court hearings and other important meetings. This ethnographic study will afford an insight into children's experiences of the system and, it is hoped, allow an understanding of a wider range of legal practices than can be achieved by speaking to practitioners alone. Additionally, lawyers will be interviewed. Semi-structured interviews will allow detailed discussion of how lawyers understand their role, how it affects them and they might practice differently (with particular reference to iv).

该博士研究项目旨在详细研究律师/客户关系如何在儿童寻求庇护的情况下运作，并了解这种关系如何受到移民法中适用的童年建设的影响。委员会还将审议是否可以通过更广泛地适用《联合国儿童权利公约》来改善这种关系。有关小船抵达的言论和内政部要求对无人陪伴儿童的年龄评估更加“严格”的要求一点也不受欢迎。与此同时，社会福利律师，特别是移民律师的心理健康状况不佳也令人担忧。他们还发现自己处于政治辩论的尖锐末端。移民法是少数几个18岁以下的人直接委托律师代表他们行事的法律领域之一。然而，它提供的程序保障很少，不像其他法律领域那样-没有专门的青少年法庭，也不像家庭法那样要求律师单独获得授权代表儿童。尽管庇护申请可能会成为生死攸关的决定，或者儿童凭借自身权利申请庇护的极端脆弱性，但情况仍然如此。似乎有一种不言而喻的假设，即无人陪伴的寻求庇护儿童是独立的、有弹性的，可以与寻求庇护的成年人一样对待。该项目着眼于考虑如何通过律师客户关系来应用与法律的专门知识有关的权力，因为这在寻求庇护的孤独儿童的情况下起作用。这将通过以下子问题进行探讨：为什么移民法不向寻求庇护的儿童提供与其他程序中的儿童相同的程序保护？二.在资金（法律的援助）和程序（庇护法和程序）要求方面，影响法律的做法的结构背景是什么？三.在移民法中适用的童年概念如何影响在英格兰和威尔士独自寻求庇护的儿童的律师的做法和福祉？四.以《联合国儿童权利公约》为中心的法律的实践方法（第3条：最大利益;第5条：成人指导权;第12条：儿童的声音;第16条：隐私权）是否可以将这种关系转移到不那么强制的模式。为了解决这些问题，博士将整合人文地理学和法律的人类学的方法，并考虑这种紧张关系如何在法律的实践中表现出来。候选人是一名执业移民律师，接受过社会学研究方法的培训。她不仅对庇护法有深入的了解，而且对律师的职业文化也有深入的了解。研究的核心部分将是一个民族志，其基础是在一个支持寻求庇护者的慈善机构（格洛斯特难民和寻求庇护者行动）中花费的时间。候选人将与一名专门支持无人陪伴儿童的工作人员一起工作。通过这种方式工作，写信人将能够在请求旁听法庭听证会和其他重要会议之前建立信任关系。这项人种学研究将使人们深入了解儿童对该制度的经历，并希望能够比单独与从业人员交谈更广泛地了解法律的做法。此外，律师将接受采访。半结构化访谈将允许详细讨论律师如何理解他们的角色，它如何影响他们，他们可能会以不同的方式执业（特别是参考iv）。