Asylum After Empire

In recent years, there has been an acknowledgement of the need for historical analyses of refugee and asylum policies. In part, this method can help us understand how a clinical legal policy can stir an emotionally charged, often negative, response in countries of asylum in the West, especially in this current moment of crisis as unprecedented numbers of refugees from non-European territories pursue asylum in the former ‘metropole’. Lucy Mayblin’s Asylum After Empire is a breath of fresh air in the examination of Britain’s response to asylum seekers, reminding us forcefully that the non-European refugee is not a new, disruptive phenomenon of the post-Cold War world. Instead of starting at the moment that Britain grappled with the idea of who belonged within her sovereign borders, Mayblin begins at the very idea of who is Man and Human, and navigates how a heavily racialized dialogue of coloniality/modernity makes its way from public discourse to sterile legalese. Starting from the abolitionist movement and leading to the present ‘dehumanization’ of asylum seekers in Britain, Mayblin takes the idea of asylum beyond just the legal aspects to citizenship. Instead, she traces the exclusionary notions of humanity that underpin the creation of these laws and the way in which they are applied. Her chosen method is historical sociology

Acknowledgement · Citizenship · Colonialism · Criminology · Dehumanization · Empire · Human rights · Humanity · Modernity · Political science · Politics · Refugee · Sociology · Sovereignty · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History of Science and Medicine · Medical History and Research · Gender Studies · Law

• The Geopolitics of Refugee Studies

  B S Chimni•Journal of Refugee Studies•1998

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