Degradation by design: corrosive control in the lives of women seeking asylum in bordered Britain
Please note the earlier than usual start time for this seminar, at 3:00pm.

As gendered discourses around migration proliferate, focus is often trained on experiences of women in interpersonal capacities, primarily in regard to subjections to predominately male violence. Drawing on research in Britain and activist participation with women seeking asylum, this article expands this focus into the realm of state-corporate harms against women. Previous research evidences that immigration law and policy often work to minimalise autonomy at the ground level, and dependence on spousal visas or housing and finances can exacerbate dependence on men, including violent men. This article argues that this punitive landscape of Britain’s asylum system facilitates further violence against women seeking asylum, rather than ensuring protection. Moreover, harm is inflicted by the structures of coercive control set out by the state and its amorphous relations with corporations. Such structures are largely manufactured by the British state, but increasingly enacted by its corporate allies. These environments, I argue, mirror those of domestically violent perpetrators and work to gradually corrode women’s autonomy and indeed sense of safety.
Date: 5 February 2020, 15:00 (Wednesday, 3rd week, Hilary 2020)
Venue: Queen Elizabeth House, 3 Mansfield Road OX1 3TB
Venue Details: Seminar Room 3
Speaker: Dr Victoria Canning (University of Bristol)
Organising department: Refugee Studies Centre
Part of: Refugee Studies Centre Public Seminar Series
Booking required?: Not required
Booking url: https://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/degradation-by-design-corrosive-control-in-the-lives-of-women-seeking-asylum-in-bordered-britain
Audience: Public
Editor: Tamsin Kelk