2243 Migration, Integration and Law
WG Law and Migration
Room: C4.06
Chair: Nina Amelung | University of Minho
Iker Barbero | University of the Basque Country
Are duty immigration lawyers in the Industry? Public Legal Aid and Deportation procedures in Spain
Abstract
The objective of this text is to place the role of the duty immigration lawyers in the debate of the migration control industry (ICM), as well as the migration rescue industry (MRI). While they are framed within the structure of a private corporate entity but of public interest, such as the Bar Associations in Spain, they are the result of a regulation of the recognition of the right to a due defense, particularly in expulsion procedures. Therefore, the main argument is that the Immigration duty lawyers are located in an intermediate space between the ICM and the MRI: although there is a certain remuneration and a profit in the assistance, these services arise, to a large extent, from activist impulses and social values such as commitment to the human rights of foreigners.
Jan Bazyli Klakla | Jegiellonian University in Cracow
Applying biographical method in the field of sociology of law. Acculturation strategies among foreigners in Poland - preliminary report of a pilot study
Abstract
Polish law creates specific legal and institutional framework shaping the reality of foreigners living in Poland, depending on the legal form of their residence. The presence of foreigners in the society results in the unavoidable occurrence of the phenomenon of acculturation. Acculturation comes from the continuous direct contact between two groups from different cultures. It involves gradual changes in the cultural pattern of one or both groups. In my research project I investigate the factors determining the type and effectiveness of acculturation strategies chosen by foreigners living in in Poland. Special emphasis is placed on legal and institutional factors, particularly on the legal status of these foreigners’ residence on the territory of Poland. In my research, I aim to evaluate these institutions from the foreigners’ perspective. The project is based on a theoretical model developed by a group of Spanish researchers working at the Universidad de Almería, created in order to study the phenomenon of acculturation - Relative Acculturation Extended Model. The research group in this project consists of migrants originating from former Yugoslavia and Albania, who arrived in the Republic of Poland in the period of 1992-2003. According to the data of the Office for Foreigners it is a group of 5000 people, of which about 450 people have received the status of refugee or subsidiary protection. Selecting this research group allows to conduct comparative research. The study has a three-stage character, combining formal-dogmatic method with quantitative and qualitative empirical research - mixed model research design methodology is used. The qualitative method will be used with about 50 migrants in the form of biographical interviews. At the same time, quantitative research methods will be used in the form of a questionnaire. The results will help to identify the underlying biographical processes associated with the migration process and determine how institutional factors affect the experience of migrants in the migration process, the strategies adopted by them, the effectiveness of these strategies, and the nature of the relationship between these choices, their effect and beforementioned factors. In my presentation on RCSL Conference I would like to present preliminary report of a pilot qualitative study done in winter 2017/2018. Particular focus will be to methodological aspects of biographical research in the field of sociology of law.
Yasmine Bouagga | CNRS
Negotiating legality in the informal refugee camp (Calais Jungle)
Abstract
The multiplication of informal campsites was the most visible sign of the 2015-2016 European refugee « crisis ». These precarious dwellings for transient migrants have been recurring in border areas in Greece, in the Balkan region, and in northern France. In the city of Calais, several campsites and squats were evacuated in the Spring 2015 and migrants’ informal settlements were tolerated in an area outside the city centre, officially called the Moorland Camp. Refugees, volunteers and the media commonly called this camp, “the Jungle”, a name evoking the dubious legality of the place, which was not an official refugee camp. But neither was it comparable to Rroma slums, common at the periphery of French cities (Cousin and Legros 2015): Calais Jungle could not be defined at completely illegal and its evacuation in October 2016 became a public issue. Understanding the legal trajectory of this specific camp provides a better understanding of legal works on migration issues, both from perspective of the State, and from the perspective of migrants and their supports. This research is based on an ethnographic study conducted between Feb. and Oct. 2016, complemented with interviews and archival research. I demonstrate how the involvement of volunteers framed the issue in terms of refugee rights. Although camps have been conceptualized in political philosophy as places outside the pale of the law (Agamben 1997), ethnographic research has demonstrated the complex political and legal life of the camp (Agier 2008; Holzer 2013). Its features of exclusion, extraterritoriality and exception do not mean that law is inexistent: it is contested, debated, and negotiated, on the grounds of local rules and international law (ex. Geneva Convention). Different types of legal mobilisations were initiated in Calais: to claim a humanitarian intervention of the French government; to contest the eviction of the refugees. But debates over legality did not happen only in courts: it was a daily negotiation over the tolerance of the police – negotiating the extension of an area to build new shelter, negotiating the presence of small businesses in the slum etc. Migrants are not passive victims of a sovereign law, they can also use it as tool of resistance or claim for political inclusion, as studies of the “politics of the governed” (Chatterjee 2007) have shown. This case study of a shaky definition of the camp contributes to an exploration of legality at its margins.