| Principal Investigator: | Dr Anna Waldstein |
|---|---|
| Research Assistant: | Dennis Francis |
| Project dates: | 2017 |
| Funding: | British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant |
Project Description:
On 7 September 2016, a flight was surreptitiously chartered by the Home Office to deport nearly 50 long-term residents of the UK to Jamaica. The people on the flight were denied their right to family and private life in the UK, which is covered by article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and many had deportation appeals still pending. The charter flight is part of a longer legacy of ‘deportability’ among Jamaicans living in the UK, which historically has kept this community fragmented and marginalised, and currently threatens to undermine positive relationships between the UK, Jamaica and beyond.
Deportability as an anthropological concept has been used to understand how and why certain migrations are constituted as ‘illegal’. Deportability doesn’t necessarily exclude migrants physically, but rather includes them socially, under conditions of enforced and protracted vulnerability (De Genova 2002). As the UK separates from the EU, it will become increasingly important to understand the effects of deportability on the lives of migrants.
This project will explore how deportability affects the health and well-being of migrants, focusing on Jamaicans as a case study. Deportable Jamaicans living in the UK suffer from structural vulnerabilities: forms of social, cultural, political and economic marginalisation that result from imbalances of power. Due to the particulars of the historical relationship between the UK and Jamaica, deportation appeals can take over a decade to be resolved, leaving deportable Jamaicans and their families in states of uncertainty and vulnerability for very long periods of time. This has potentially devastating effects on well-being, as structural vulnerabilities can manifest as signs and symptoms of illness and disease under the threat of deportation.
Using conventional and innovative ethnographic methods, this project will give voice to a group of migrants who historically have been silenced, while making a contribution to studies of migration in political and medical anthropology. Specific objectives include:
- Recording life histories and coping strategies of Jamaican nationals who report/have reported to the Home Office while awaiting decisions on deportation appeals.
- Documenting the effects of deportation upon the family life and well-being of British relatives of Jamaican deportees.