The Humanization of Immigration Detention and the Abjection of Detainees

Crosby, Andrew
(2022) Migration Control in Practice: Before and Within the Borders of the State — ISBN: [978-2-8004-1804-9], p. 225-24, published

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Abstract
In this chapter I look at how depersonalization of detainees is produced in the ‘closed centres’ – as immigration detention centres are called in Belgium. My analysis problematizes the official discourse that detention has been ‘humanized’ with the introduction of non-custodial staff in charge of the social, mental, and physical well-being of detainees. In problematizing ‘human- ization’ I am not trying to say that it has not worked and that it merely legitimates detention, which, I believe, is one of its functions. Instead, I am interested in analysing the ways in which institutional power is exercised by staff that is not in charge of control and security. To illustrate this, I will focus on a case of depersonalization observed during my fieldwork, which, though it may not be representative of all cases, reflects all the elements of depersonalization.
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Crosby, A. (2022). The Humanization of Immigration Detention and the Abjection of Detainees. In Federica Infantino and Djordje Sredanovic (eds.) (ed.), Migration Control in Practice: Before and Within the Borders of the State (p. p. 225-24). éditions de l’Université de Bruxelles. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/248316