Seminars

A chrysalis for every kind of criminal? Mobility, crime and citizenship

Seminar Series Michaelmas 2011 / Thursdays 14.00 - 15.30, Convened by The COMPAS Citizenship and Belonging Cluster

Seminar Room, Pauling Centre, 58a Banbury Road, Oxford

Back to Events

Overview

Migration scholars and NGOs have often sought to disassociate popular associations between criminality and immigration: migrants are not criminals, nor are they necessarily more likely to commit crime. But this risks ignoring important relationships between immigration and criminality, both 'immigrant' and 'criminal' for example, are set in opposition to the (good) citizen, both are  important administrative categories for states, and comprise groups upon whom the state can exercise significant degrees of coercion. Both are highly racialised. There are also historical continuities: mobility has long been associated with criminality, through vagabondage and the problem of 'masterless men', gypsies and Roma, and 'illegal immigrants'. Both groups can share social and political disabilities – in the US former prisoners are not eligible for further education grants, cannot access welfare payments or food stamps, and in 10 states, are denied the right to vote for life. This seminar series will interrogate the relation between immigration, criminality and citizenship, by exploring these issues.

Follow the COMPAS Seminar Series weekly discussion question on the COMPAS facebook page. Each week a new question will be posed based on the week's seminar, which we invite you to get involved in.

Seminars