Asylum, welfare, and work in the age of austerity

In the 'age of austerity' the prominent political discourse of unemployment and welfare dependency has sought to distinguish good citizens from failed citizens, strivers from skivers. Taken at face value this discourse would categorise the vast majority of asylum seekers in the UK as 'skivers' since it is illegal for them to undertake paid employment; their position in the striver/skiver binary is enshrined in law. While they are forced to live in a condition of poverty and social exclusion, the provision of state support to asylum seekers is necessary; it costs the treasury around £1.85 billion to impose welfare dependency upon asylum seekers. And yet, contradictions between policy imperatives related to work, welfare and asylum are paid surprisingly little attention by politicians, the media, and academics. This project responds to the need for an evidence-based approach; it will provide an evaluation of the internal inconsistencies and contradictions of current policy, analysing the cultural political economy of asylum and employment policy and in doing so will provide high impact, multidisciplinary social scientific research for a far reaching audience.

The methods used in researching this topic are first to map the discourses (what people say, in interviews and in published documents) of politicians, charitable sector organisations and campaign groups. What is said on the topic of asylum seekers and work will then be compared to the reality on the ground. Does it cost more or less to prevent asylum seekers from working and in turn pay for their living costs? And could the UK expect more economic migrants claiming to be asylum seekers if employment rights were extended? These questions will be answered through in-depth analysis of speech (interviews) and text (policy and campaigning documents), through statistical investigation of government data, and through interviews with asylum seekers themselves. Together, these methods will allow me to identify the range of political discourses used by politicians and advocates on the topic of asylum seekers and the right to work, to identify the continuities and discontinuities between these discourses, to assess whether there is an economic rationale for preventing asylum seekers from undertaking paid employment, and whether asylum seekers coming to the UK are attracted by welfare and/or employment rights. This research will be of interest to audiences beyond the academy, including, though not restricted to, policy makers, NGOs working on welfare, work and/or asylum, journalists, campaign groups and interested publics. The findings of this research will aid in policy making on asylum and can be used not only by government but also by third sector organisations who may seek to influence policy in this area.

Finding pathways to realise this impact is central to the study. The research will be of interest not only to academics but also to politicians and policy makers, third sector organisations and activists working with asylum seekers and refugees. The central pathway to impact for this project will be collaboration with third sector organisations. The Refugee Council is the largest asylum seeker and refugee NGO in Britain and Sheffield City of Sanctuary is at the centre of all third sector activity around asylum in the city. These will be the main organisations with which I will work. Employing Lisa Doyle (Advocacy and Influencing Manager) from the Refugee Council as a consultant will allow us to co-produce materials such as briefing documents targeted at policy makers. Lisa Doyle will sit on the advisory group, as will Sarah Eldridge from Sheffield City of Sanctuary. In the final year of the project I will co-produce a one off dissemination event with Sheffield City of Sanctuary on the theme of asylum and work which will involve asylum seekers themselves. I will also organise 2 workshop days in the second and third years of the project -one in at host institution in Sheffield and one in London- in order to build awareness of the project and in later stages share the key findings. Workshops will include both academics (including the advisory team) and non-academic stakeholders (including the Refugee Council and Sheffield City of Sanctuary) as well as policymakers where possible. Contacts already established at the Cabinet Office and through the All Party Parliamentary Group for Refugees will be leveraged for this purpose. This work with third sector organisations will be a key pathway to impacting policy. In addition to this I will present policy briefing documents to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees, which will be facilitated via the Refugee Council who act as secretariat and will have co-produced the briefings with me. Working with third sector partners to produce 'bite-sized' findings will give me some tools with which to build awareness amongst policymakers.

In order to build awareness more among stakeholders more broadly (third sector organisations, campaigners, policy makers, journalists, academics and the wider public), a number of activities will be undertaken including the use of w project website, social media, and writing articles for online platforms such as the Guardian Newspaper's 'Comment is Free'. In order to engage students (potential policy makers and practitioners of the future), I will seek out opportunities for teaching on the topic of the research. I will work with Student Action for Refugees to deliver a workshop to members at the University. This will both raise awareness of my work, and provide students with access to cutting edge research. In order to reach wider publics I plan to submit a proposal to the University of Sheffield's Festival of the Mind. The aim bill be to commission Human Studio to produce a short film on the topic of the research, visualizing the data for a lay audience. Should this be successful, the film would be used in the University of Sheffield's premier Public Engagement event 'Festival of the Mind', and submitted for presentation at the annual Sheffield Documentary Film Festival 'Docfest'.