ICAR 'Focus On' September 2009: the Calais asylum seeker crisis and the need to move on
30 September 2009
ICAR Director Neil Amas looks at the recent eviction of asylum seekers from their makeshift camp near Calais and suggests that, like the evictees themselves, the terms of the debate about economic versus forced migration need to move on.
The recent controversy over asylum seekers being cleared from their temporary camp in Calais has put the old misconceptions about asylum back into the spotlight. Portrayed by senior Conservative and ex-cabinet minister Michael Heseltine as ‘economic migrants' on BBC's Question Time last week, and by one member of the audience as only seeking benefits, it seems the need to improve understanding about refugees remains, not only amongst the public, but also amongst highly respected and influential politicians.
When questioned by irritated Liberal MP David Laws as to how he knew they were economic migrants, Heseltine simply replied, ‘you can just tell.' One could argue that this level of analysis is a little worrying from a senior member of the party likely to be in power next year - not that it differs much from the current government's sentiments over the crisis. Aside from this rather schoolboyish remark, however, is there perhaps some truth in his assertion? Maybe these people do have economic motivations, and if they do, is that ‘normal' for asylum seekers? And if it is, should this be frowned upon?
The asylum seekers, mainly Afghans and Iraqis but also other nationalities, had been encamped in the squalid conditions of the so-called ‘Jungle' hoping to find their way across the English Channel to the UK. Their reasons for wishing to claim asylum in the UK, rather than France or elsewhere, are unclear. Apart from the odd media soundbite, there does not seem to have been any meaningful canvassing of their opinions.
The reasons why asylum seekers choose the UK as a destination and the amount of choice they have over their asylum destination is a complex and controversial issue, hotly contested in the media but relatively under-researched. What evidence does exist suggests that agents, or ‘traffickers', have a large influence on destinations. Alice Bloch found in her study of asylum seekers in Newham that "more than two-thirds came to Britain because they had no choice over their destination. Instead they relied on agents who arranged their flight" (Bloch 2002:75). Research carried out for the Home Office suggests that those asylum seekers who do exert choice over their destination choose to come to the UK for a number of reasons, including the cost of travel, the existence of family, friends and social networks, perceptions of shared values and history with the UK and opportunities to learn or better English skills in order to enhance employment chances (Koser and Pinkerton 2002; Robinson and Sergott 2002). UK may also be chosen as a destination by some asylum seekers because they perceive it to be a fair and democratic society which will treat their claim sympathetically (Bloch 2002).
However, the fact that the Calais asylum seekers could have claimed asylum in France is what has irked many. To these observers, a refugee's only needs are for safety. This notion, that asylum seekers should claim asylum at the first ‘safe' place they arrive, is built on the conception that safety is, and should be, their one and only consideration when leaving a situation of conflict or persecution. This position appears to view such individuals as passive victims of war and hardship, too uninformed or ‘traumatised' to be able to express the kinds of needs and wishes the rest of us have. But while safety may well be the initial consideration, secondary movements are also part of the process of exile, and considerations that take into account a home, a job, an education and re-connected family life are all normal and expected responses to loss and dislocation. A study of Somali refugees who moved on from initial places of arrival found that, to them, being a refugee meant more than having to leave a home due to fears for their safety. Beyond escaping those threats, it meant "escaping to other more viable conditions (and) needing to achieve something in exile that had been lost in the process of gaining safety' (Zimmermann 2009:83).
This challenges the popular focus, from both sides of the debate, upon refugees' preoccupations with safety. While some see wanting homes and incomes as necessarily ‘voluntary' issues that should be discouraged or prevented, others see such desires as irrelevant to the asylum seeker who ‘washes up' on our shores, disoriented and with the sole motivation of seeking sanctuary. It could be argued that neither view is correct and instead portray the asylum seeker as passive subject of either our anger or our pity.
So perhaps Heseltine was partly right. These migrants are ‘economic' in that they no doubt have the same financial hopes and expectations as the rest of us. But it is unlikely this is what he meant; he did not give the impression of a man who understands the myriad of motivations that determine the journeys and destinations of those in exile. These are undoubtedly complex and subject to a number of influences, but once you have taken away the initial need for safety, just how different are they from yours and mine?
References
Bloch, A (2002) ‘The Migration and Settlement of Refugees in Britain' Palgrave Macmillan London
Koser, K and Pinkerton, C (2002) ‘The social networks of asylum seekers and the dissemination of information about countries of asylum' Home Office Findings 165 London Available online: http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/r165.pdf
Robinson, V and Segrott, J (2002) ‘Understanding the decision-making of asylum seekers' Home Office Research Study 243. Available Online: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/hors243.pdf
Van Hear, N (2004) ‘'I went as far as my money could take me': conflict, forced migration and class' Centre on Migration, Policy and Society Working paper No. 6 University of Oxford. Available online: http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/publications/Working%20papers/wp-04-06.shtml
Zimmermann, S (2009) ‘Irregular Secondary Movements to Europe: Seeking Asylum beyond Refuge' Journal of Refugee Studies Vol. 22, No. 1. University of Oxford
