Channel Crossings: Irregular migration, policies and politics in the English Channel

2020年，超过8500人乘坐船只和小艇等非正式海上船只从法国北部前往英国海岸，在2021年4月撰写本文时，超过1500名移民进行了类似的不规则和危险的穿越英吉利海峡的旅程。他们这样做主要是为了在英国申请庇护（Grierson and Wilshire 2020）， 98%的人在抵达后这样做（Home Office 2020）。这些旅程对那些踏上旅程的人有着深远的影响，也有深远的政治影响。它们引发了一场媒体风暴和一场政治危机，导致一系列被动的政策干预被计划、推迟和搁置；这些计划包括在英吉利海峡建立渔网或船队，以防止非法越海；将寻求庇护者关押在废弃的渡轮上；以及在英国位于大西洋的偏远领土上建立庇护处理中心。最近，就在这项提案提交之际，英国内政部（Home Office）概述了一项有争议的庇护和移民政策改革，其中很大一部分是对越境现象的直接回应。围绕这些旅程的持续性和围绕它们的治理问题的反复出现和持续的争议也导致了重大的政治动荡和对政府机构缺乏政治信任。近年来，英吉利海峡过境次数的增加导致英吉利海峡军事化程度的提高。无人机、海岸巡逻和军舰的部署与军事化话语的部署相匹配，在这种话语中，“不受欢迎的”寻求庇护者被描绘成入侵力量，而不是逃离冲突或贫困的潜在弱势群体。虽然有大量的研究集中在加莱的非正式营地，以及那些发现自己在那里的人的动机和面临的挑战（包括项目团队的工作），但没有系统的分析英国在那些设法或试图穿越英吉利海峡的人中的作用和反应。我们的研究将填补这一空白。它将调查非正常越境的现象以及英国对此的反应。我们在与后殖民理论的对话中提出了边界过滤的概念，以便将政策反应置于更广泛的，历史上出现的和种族化的逻辑中。我们将研究国家层面的政策反应和指导所证明的对非正常越境的不断变化的反应。我们还将探讨民间社会的反应和英吉利海峡过境者自己的经历。在整个项目中，我们将整合不同类型的知识，并与非政府组织和政策制定者密切合作，通过生产各种及时、方便用户的产出，为可持续应对战略提供信息。

In 2020, over 8500 people have made their way from Northern France to the UK coast using informal sea vessels such as boats and dinghies, and at the time of writing in April 2021 over 1500 migrants have made similar irregular and perilous journeys across the Channel. They have done so principally in order to claim asylum in the United Kingdom (Grierson and Wilshire 2020), with 98% doing so upon arrival (Home Office 2020). These journeys have profound implications for those who take them, as well as far reaching political implications. They have created a media-storm and a political crisis, leading to a series of reactive policy interventions being planned, delayed and shelved; these include plans for nets or flotillas to be erected in the Channel to prevent irregular sea crossings, for asylum seekers to be put in detention on disused ferries, and building asylum processing centres on remote UK territories in the Atlantic Ocean. Most recently and just as this proposal is submitted, the Home Office has outlined a controversial overhaul of asylum and immigration policy, much of which is a direct response to the phenomenon of Channel Crossings. The recurring and ongoing controversies around the persistence of these journeys and the questions of governance which surround them, have also contributed to significant political turbulence and a lack of political trust in government institutions.Increased Channel crossings in recent years have led to the enhanced militarisation of the English Channel. The deployment of drones, coastal patrols and warships were matched by the deployment of a militarised discourse, in which 'unwanted' asylum seekers were portrayed as an invading force rather than potentially vulnerable people fleeing conflict or poverty. While there is a large body of research focussing on informal camps in Calais and the motivations of, and challenges faced by, those who find themselves there (Including work by the project team), there has been no systematic analysis of the British role in, and response to, those who manage to make or attempt a journey across the Channel.Our study will fill this gap. It will examine the phenomenon of irregular Channel crossings and British responses to them. We advance the concept of border filtration in dialogue with postcolonial theory in order to situate policy responses in broader, historically emergent and racialised logics. We will examine the changing response to irregular Channel crossings as evidenced by policy responses and guidance at the national level. We will also explore civil society responses and the experiences of Channel crossers themselves. Across the project we will integrate different types of knowledge and work closely with NGOs and policy makers to inform strategies for sustainable responses through the production of a variety of timely, user-friendly outputs.