Enduring Uncertainty

Front matter

Deportation, Punishment and Everyday Life

DISLOCATIONS

(VoLUME 17) Ines Hasselberg

Index

PREFACE

C

Subject: RE: Date: Wednesday, |4 April 2010 17:05 From: Name and email deleted To: Ines Hasselberg <I.A.Hasselberg@sussex.ac.uk>

Hi Ines,

Well my partner is currently facing deportation back to Uzbekistan after coming to the UK I9 years ago as a child with his family. The reason being for his deportation is due to him getting a criminal record in 2003 however no one has contacted him up until 2008 after he enquired about getting a replacement passport due to him losing his so we're now left wondering if we never did enquire about the passport would he have been left alone. My partner was never aware that he was not a UK citizen he assumed that his father had completed the appropriate paper work and we never had any reason to doubt otherwise as he went to school here, and lived like any other British citizen. We have four children aged seven, four, two and the baby four months. The eldest not being

my partner's biological child, and he has full contact with his father on a regular basis. We have appealed the deportation at an immigration tribunal and it was rejected so we are now in the process of waiting for a date to go to the higher courts.

The effect it has had on our family is unspeakable, i had my two year old early due to the stress of the court case coming up, we have got ourselfs into E!000's of pounds worth of debt in solicitors fee's. The ‘not knowing’ what is awaiting in the future is really hard and the prospect of having to go to Uzbekistan is very frightening for my partner and myself. He has no family over there anymore and isnt very fluent in the language so he has no idea of what he is going to do if he is sent back he has no money and nowhere to go, how will he get a job with the poor language etc its all going through his mind on a daily basis and he often gets that worked up he ends up vomiting, for myself i have never been abroad so the thought

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Preface | ix of moving there scares me has a completly different re to death, especially the fact that the country igion to my own and language. My youngest baby was also born early at 28 weeks and has numerous health problems and has on going treatment so to move to a country where you have to pay for health care is daunt went wrong?

Other problems we are fac ng what if we had no money and something ing is that my oldest son's father is refusing to allow me to take him abroad so there would be an ongoing battle with him and he has joint parental responsibilities so he is within his rights to do so, its not just that | would feel so guilty to take my son away from his dad who he is very close to and he has a life here he has friends, he loves his school, he has numerous out of school activities and it would devastate him to have to move. We are a close nit family i have a close relationship with all my family and same with my partner's family so it would have a knock on effect with them also.

Other effects it has had on me and my partner is we are both highly tensed and stressed, we dread the postman coming thinking is there a letter from the border agency or court its like living in fear I've lost alot of weight im constantly run down and tired i can burst into tears for nothing | actually think tts made me depressed and the thought of the unthinkable happening just makes me feel phyically ill. | just wish the judges and immigration could take this kind of thing into account. Them shipping people back to there country of origin ends there who are UK citizens and are for them but for the family's of these people completely innocent the trauma of it goes on because im then left with the job of explaining to my children of whats happened to there father and they have to watch me upset and that will affect them in its own way. And the whole me and the children moving to

Uzbekistan will have its own | hope ive not gone on too Many Thanks problems and stresses as | mentioned above. long and i hope this information helps you out.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Og

This book has relied on the input, guidance and support of numerous people and institutions. I start by showing my appreciation to Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, which sponsored this research through a generous scholarship; to the University of Sussex for all the institutional support provided during the research years; and to the European Research Council for funding my current work at the Centre for Criminology at the University of Oxford as part of a research endeavour entitled ‘Subjectivity, Identity and Penal Power: Incarceration in a Global Age’, led by Professor Mary Bosworth.

I could not be more grateful to Professor Richard Black and Dr Mark Leopold, who have been extremely supportive and dedicated. They encouraged me to pursue my research project, challenged me to think ahead, and gave me much appreciated motivation to pursue my writing whenever I found myself lost in the data and began considering alternative careers. They were patient with my progress, constructive with feedback and discussions of my tentative chapters and available when I needed them. I am grateful to Fran Meissner and Linnet Taylor, Dorothea Mueller and Christina Oelgemoller, all of whom have been amazing friends and colleagues.

The preparation of the manuscript was completed while I was (as I still am) a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford. At Oxford I am fortunate to be working with Professor Mary Bosworth and Dr Sarah Turnbull. Mary and Sarah not only encouraged me to develop my work for publication, and afforded me the time to work on it, but have also become good friends and are both, albeit in different ways, a great source of inspiration. With them I am learning to be a better researcher, a better academic and a better person. I am also extremely grateful to Carolyn Hoyle, Rachel Condry, Julia Viebach, Ambrose Lee and everyone at the Centre for Criminology for welcoming me warmly when I first arrived, for providing me with such a stimulating and engaging

Acknowledgements | xi work environment and for all the support they have given me when I most needed it. I could not have asked for a better place to work.

Dr Fran Meissner, Dr Linnet Taylor, Professor Marie-Benedicte Dembour and Dr Nicholas de Genova have all commented on earlier drafts of this book. Their discussions of my work have been immensely useful, and their input informs the pages of this book. The three anonymous reviewers who also commented on an earlier draft have greatly contributed to its improvement, and I am grateful for the time they put in. Iam also grateful to the editors of ‘Dislocations’ and to Berghahn, in particular to Molly Mosher who has been by main contact point and was always patient with my delays.

My friends Nick Perkins, Sara Biscaya, Anja Fischer, Catarina Frois, Christina Christoforou, Juliana Mimoso and Joana Gafeira have also been part of this book through their presence in my life and their unconditional understanding of my anxieties and frustrations.

I am grateful to my mother, my brothers and sisters, my grandmother. To Jorge, Manhinha, Rita and Zé, Mafalda and Lino and the kids. I couldn’t have asked for a better family. They have always believed in me and have been an invaluable support in raising my daughters and in making their lives wonderfully happy. To my husband Joao, who endured two years of separation over this research project and who then put up with my crankiness, stress and untidiness for the remaining writing period. He encouraged me to aim higher, to do better and be more demanding of my work. To my daughters, Teresa and Isabel, for their unconditional love. Teresa, Isabel and Joao have the ability to turn a frustrating day into bliss upon returning home. Without them this would have been a very difficult journey.

Above all, I am thankful to all the staff of the institutions and organisations that I volunteered with in London, who pointed me in new directions and were so enthusiastic about this project. Most importantly, it would not have been possible without the people who agreed to meet me, who again and again made time to see me and patiently answered my questions and shared with me their thoughts, concerns and anxieties. As I promised them anonymity I cannot here express my appreciation individually, but I am truly grateful to them, and it is for them, and with them in mind, that I wrote this book.

Chapter 3 is based upon an article entitled ‘Coerced to Leave: Punishment and the Surveillance of Foreign-national Offenders in the UK’, Surveillance and Society (2014). Parts of Chapter 5 are based on xii | Acknowledgements the article ‘Balancing Legitimacy, Exceptionality and Accountability: On Foreign-national Offenders’ Reluctance to Engage in Anti-deportation Campaigns in the UK’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (Taylor & Francis, 2015).

ABBREVIATIONS

Cs

ADC _ Anti-deportation Campaign

AIT Asylum and Immigration Tribunal

ECHR European Convention on Human Rights EEA European Economic Area

ERS Early Removal Scheme

FRS Facilitated Removal Scheme

HMPS Her Majesty’s Prison Service

HOPO Home Office Presenting Officer

ICIBI Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration ICU Intensive Care Unit

IRC Immigration Removal Centre

NGO Non-governmental Organisation

NOII No One Is Illegal

SIAC Special Immigration Appeals Commission UKBA UK Border Agency

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