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Accepted Contribution:
Corporate gains and private power: resisting the profit-makers uncommoning asylum
Siobhan McGuirk
(University of Almería)
As states strive to foreclose and popular movements struggle to defend asylum access, multinational corporations seek maximum profit from border fortification regimes. Their practices allow states to ‘outsource’ protection obligations––and demand new, transnational disruption tactics in response.
Contribution long abstract:
Between state efforts to limit access to asylum and transnational popular movements fighting to defend international protection regimes stand private corporations manoeuvring to profit from interconnected systems of “deterrence”, border fortification, detention and deportation. In this short statement, I first provide a brief overview of the priorities and practices of some of the multinational commercial actors operating across borders to this end. Next, I highlight how states’ subcontracting of asylum system procedures also allows them to effectively ‘outsource’ responsibility for claimants’ lives and wellbeing. I close by noting some of the protest and disruption tactics adopted by immigrants’ rights activists worldwide that are specifically designed to halt and undo the corporatisation of asylum.