Migrant Homelessness and the Crimmigration Control System offers new insights into the drivers of homelessness following migration by unpacking the housing consequences of ‘crimmigration’ control systems in the US and the UK. The book advances ‘housing sacrifice’ as a concept to understand journeys in and out of homelessness and the coping strategies migrants employ. Undergirded by persuasive empirical research, it offers a compelling case for a ‘social citizenship’ right to housing guaranteed across social, political and civil realms of society. The book is structured around the 30 life stories of people who have migrated to the capital cities of Boston and Edinburgh from Central America and Eastern Europe. The narratives are complemented by interviews with a range of stakeholders (including frontline caseworkers, activists and policymakers). Guided by the tenets of critical realist theory, this book offers a biographical inquiry into the intersections of race, class and gender and provides insight into the everyday precarity homeless migrants face, by listening to them directly. It will be of interest to students, scholars, and policymakers across a range of fields including housing, immigration, criminology, sociology, and human geography.
Author(s): Regina Serpa
Series: Explorations in Housing Studies
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 134
City: New York
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Tables
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
Methodology
Structure of the book
References
2. Using Critical Realism to Understand Migrant Homelessness and Crimmigration Control
Introduction
The application of critical realism
Explanations of homelessness
The construction of migrant homelessness
Individualist accounts of migrant homelessness
Structural explanations of migrant homelessness
Migrant homelessness and the emerging crimmigration control system
Conclusion
References
3. Three Drivers of Migration—Survival, Freedom and Opportunity
Introduction
Theorising mobility
Survival
Freedom
Opportunity
Conclusion
References
4. Service Provision in a 'Hostile Environment'
Introduction
Comparing housing and homelessness policies
Immigration control in the U.S. and UK
Resentment
Avoidance
Discretion
Conclusion
References
5. Exclusion and Housing Sacrifice
Introduction
Crimmigration, work and homelessness
Exclusion from within
Housing strategies dealing with crimmigration control
Conclusion
References
6. Conclusion: Crimmigration, Housing Sacrifice, Citizenship and the Right to Housing
Introduction
Housing sacrifice
Social citizenship and the right to housing
Conclusion
References
Postscript: The Magic of Crimmigration
Index
