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

该博士研究项目旨在详细研究在儿童自行寻求庇护的情况下，律师/客户关系是如何运作的，并了解这种关系是如何受到移民法中儿童建构的影响的。它还将考虑是否可以通过更多地适用联合国儿童权利公约（UNCRC）来改善这种关系。有关小船抵达的言论，以及内政部要求对无人陪伴儿童进行更“严格”的年龄评估的要求，一点也不受欢迎。与此同时，人们对社会福利律师的心理健康状况不佳感到关切；尤其是移民律师。他们还发现自己处于政治辩论的风口浪尖。移民法是少数几个18岁以下的人直接指示律师代表他们行事的法律领域之一。但是，它提供的程序性保障很少是其他法律领域所能提供的- -没有专门的青年法庭，也不需要象家庭法那样，律师必须单独获得认可才能代表儿童。尽管庇护申请可能是生死攸关的决定，或者儿童本身就有权利申请庇护的极端脆弱性。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、有韧性的，可以像寻求庇护的成年人一样对待他们。该项目旨在考虑如何通过律师-客户关系应用与法律专业知识相关的权力，因为这在寻求庇护的孤独儿童的情况下运作。这将使用以下子问题进行探讨：为什么移民法不给予寻求庇护的儿童与其他诉讼中的儿童同样的程序保护？在资金（法律援助）和程序（庇护法和程序）要求方面，影响法律实践的结构背景是什么？在移民法中适用的童年概念如何影响代表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？以《联合国儿童权利公约》（第3条：最大利益；第5条：获得成人指导的权利；第12条：儿童的发言权；第16条：隐私权）为中心的法律实践方法能否使这种关系转向较不强制的模式？为了解决这些问题，博士将整合人文地理学和法律人类学的方法，并考虑这种张力如何在法律实践中表现出来。候选人是一名执业移民律师，受过社会学研究方法方面的培训。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。此外，有人认为，体制内的人是挑战体制的最佳人选。研究的核心部分将是一个民族志，基于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）中所花费的时间。候选人将与一名专门帮助无人陪伴儿童的工作人员一起工作。通过这种方式，作者将能够在要求旁听法庭听证会和其他重要会议之前建立信任关系。这项民族志研究将提供一个洞察儿童的系统经验，并希望，允许更广泛的法律实践的理解，而不是单独与从业人员交谈。此外，律师也会接受面试。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，以及他们可能以不同的方式执业（特别参考第四章）。

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).