Hostile Environments: Policies, Stories, Responses

The purpose of this project is to investigate the structures and effects of different hostile environments faced by people who have been displaced and are seeking asylum. Focusing on the UK, Italy, Canada and the USA, the research will explore three key questions: How is the environment rendered hostile? What is the effect of that hostility on individuals? What work is being done by civil society to counter or ameliorate the hostility and its effects? In addressing these questions, the project will consider the importance of individual stories in understandings of hostile environments: how such stories are systematically occluded and how the sharing of stories enables change. By drawing out
similarities and differences across jurisdictions, this research will determine the degree to which hostile environments constitute a continuous international space. Through its comparative approach, it will arrive at urgently needed proposals for changes in national and international asylum practice.

Principal Investigator: Professor David Herd, University of Kent