Critical Migration Law

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
• Convenor: Eddie Bruce-Jones
• Assessment: a 4000-word essay (100%)

This course discusses critically both the theory and practice of immigration and asylum law. You will gain an understanding of the social, economic, legal and political nature of immigration law, the machinery of immigration control, the construction of British citizenship, the current state of European immigration law and free movement rights, as well as theories of political and social emancipation in a critical context.

Indicative module syllabus

• The body of the refugee and the immigrant
• Case study: Sexuality and the meaning of persecution
• Case study: Refugee law and the EU: a closer look
• International NGOs and steering asylum law
• Refugee conditions and dead zones
• Is refugee law desirable?
• Philosophical critiques of asylum law and policy 1: sovereignty, biopower and the nation state machine
• Philosophical critiques of asylum law and policy 2: exceptionalism, biopolitics and securitisation
• Political critiques of asylum law and policy 1: activists, immigrants and asylum seekers against borders
• Political critiques of asylum law and policy 2: capitalist economy, globalisation and human waste management

By the end of this module, you will have evaluated and criticised key aspects relating to the conflict between immigration and asylum law, popular opinion and human rights issues through theoretical and practical critiques of rights, emancipation and exclusion.