Crimmigration has rapidly become the dominant response to human mobility around the globe. It has emerged, ironically, in tandem with growing economic globalization. For capital, national borders have virtually disappeared, while the walls, virtual and literal, are growing higher for workers and others who need mobility to thrive, and even survive. Race, ethnicity, and personal wealth matter in who gains entry.

This hybrid conference will treat crimmigration and bordering holistically as systems nested within economy and society in subtle, and not-so-subtle ways. In so doing, the conference calls attention to the various 'faces' and experiences of crimmigration and bordering across the globe as well as to a critical examination of the scholarship so far.

Deadline for panels/ individual papers: May 1st, 2021

To apply, submit a (maximum) 200-word abstract, with a tentative title and contact information.

“Deporting Europeans reveals an unexpected feature of the political, institutional and cultural entanglement between two EU countries, Romania and France. Contemporary structural dependencies are rooted in a deeply neo-colonial predicament that perpetuates the inferior position of Romania vis-à-vis France and results in the implementation of policies that ultimately disadvantage and discriminate against some of the most vulnerable citizens in the EU. By analysing the deportation of Romanians from France, the book shows how policing the mobility of poor EU citizens, who are often identified as Roma, is effectively a racist policy. Deporting Europeans uncovers the justifications set forward by states in policing for deportation and in normalizing violence. The book argues that EU citizens deportation within the EU territory serves the reinforcement of state sovereignty in relation to processes of globalization. Curbing the freedom of movement, re-articulating borders and racializing the policing of certain EU citizens attest to neo-colonial patterns that structure power relations and legitimize hierarchy in Europe. This book is a compelling contribution to decolonial critique of state power in the European continent.”

Vanessa Munro has recently been appointed as an Associate Member of the Ministry of Justice’s End to End Rape Review. This Review, which is scheduled to report later this year and includes membership across the judiciary, legal profession, senior policing and prosecution personnel, as well as key victim support stakeholders, has explored evidence across all stages of the criminal justice process. It will produce a series of recommendations designed to bring about improvements in the handling of rape complaints.

The Criminal Justice Centre's co-Director, Ana Aliverti, has received the prestigious 2020 Radzinowics Prize, awarded by the British Journal of Criminology. The Prize is awarded annually for the BJC article from the latest volume which, in the opinion of the Editor-in-Chief and Editors, has made the greatest contribution to the development of criminology. More information can be found here. Ana was awarded the Prize for her article, ‘Benevolent Policing? Vulnerability and the Moral Pains of Border Controls’ (2020) British Journal of Criminology 60(5):1175-1135.

This article reports on a large-scale ethnographic study on immigration-police collaboration in everyday policing. Drawing on this unique dataset, it explores a largely neglected aspect in the policing literature: the growing emphasis on safeguarding and protection. The paper makes an important contribution to the sociology of punishment and the policing literature by assessing how punitive and humanitarian rationales and logics dovetail in the exercise of state coercion in the context of growing global interdependence and profound geopolitical inequalities. It sheds light on the ‘moral pains’ of border controls and their disruptive potential.

The full article can be found here.

Many congratulations, Ana!

In this video Dr Ana Aliverti from Warwick University discusses her research with British police and immigration enforcement agents, paying particular attention to how these state agents make sense of their work and its morally contested nature. Drawing on several years of observational research and interviews, she discusses how police and enforcement agents work together and how, their jobs and views of their roles, remain distinct.