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

近年来，“小船”穿越英吉利海峡吸引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，为边境军事化方面前所未有的进一步支出和拟议中的庇护政策“改革”奠定了基础，这些政策的“改革”以“坚定和公平”为主题。迄今为止，关于英国在治理英法边境（包括英吉利海峡的发展）中所扮演角色的实证研究有限。需要进一步的学术工作来提高理解，不仅要了解使用这条路线的寻求庇护者在政策上是如何被构建的，以及为什么要这样做，还要了解这与他们在当地的日常待遇有什么关系。这项拟议的研究询问政治家、政策制定者和内政部的业务人员如何在这个空间中构建、证明和制定“问题”和他们自己的行动。它提出的问题是：当代内政部在英吉利海峡的干预是如何被政治家、政策制定者和业务人员呈现和理解的？南海岸的边境政策是如何制定的？当代边境工作在哪些方面与英国移民“管理”的长期工作有关？三种定性方法将在跨学科的方法中使用。首先，当代话语分析将追踪官方渠道的政策和话语，并识别和探索比较历史案例。其次，精英半结构化访谈将探讨政策制定者如何理解自己的工作，并就围绕“小船”的竞争利益/逻辑进行谈判。第三，民族志与边境部队将探讨政策是如何翻译，理解和制定在地面。这项研究将有助于三个主要的文献主体。首先，关于官僚权力机构内部工作中的行政和社会实践的跨学科文献。其次，关于边境工作的文学，既有话语的，也有颁布的。第三，研究当代边境工作与英国移民管理的殖民/种族化历史之间联系的学术研究。考虑到准入、复杂性和庞大规模等问题，理解官僚机构的任务并非易事。然而，作为学者，我们有必要寻求在这些权力“黑盒子”中工作的过程的知识。本研究旨在通过内政部及其参与者未被充分研究的镜头，及时为英国移民管理知识做出贡献。因此，内政部内部的行为者、非政府组织和倡导组织都将对此感兴趣。

'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.