Housing in a Hostile Environment: A Critical Study of the Provision of Asylum Seeker Housing under the COMPASS Contracts and its Effects on Subjecthoo

This project will explore the complexities of the UK Home Office's COMPASS contract for asylum seeker housing provision in Scotland at a crucial juncture in the contract's lifespan. It will build upon work investigating the UK Government's implementation of border regimes in housing legislation and policy by Crawford et al., 2016, Leahy et al 2018 and the wholesale privatization of asylum seeker housing through the COMPASS[1] contracts by Darling, 2016a, 2016b. My research will critically examine the contracting of the care of vulnerable persons to private corporations, specifically the impact of this contract upon the frontline staff who enact it and the asylum seekers who live under it. This will be undertaken through a critical examination of legislation, policy and contract documents, as well as semi-structured interviews with housing provider staff and asylum-seeking residents in Scotland.

The project will be of particular significance for the academic disciplines of migration and border studies, human geography and social policy. It will, however, also be relevant to housing policy and practice, in that it evaluates the perspectives of people both working with and living under this particular contract. It is intended, therefore, to contribute to a greater understanding both of migration and of the privatization of welfare and housing - crucially, as a means of provision for a particularly vulnerable social group.