Taking Sides: Protest Against the Deportation of Asylum Seekers. A Comparison between Germany, Austria and Switzerland
Final Report Abstract
The trilateral research project “Taking Sides: Protests against the deportation of Asylum Seekers” explored protest trajectories and patterns against the deportation of asylum seekers over a period of twenty years (1993 to 2013). It analyzed and compared protest events reported in the mass media in three European countries – Austria, Germany and Switzerland. It combined this media analysis with 15 in-depth case studies of key protests in support of specific individuals with deportation orders. The project findings underline a major paradox in the field of migration politics: While strict immigration control is supported by a majority of voters, the enforcement of deportations is often contested at the same time. This happens at the stage of policy implementation, when public attention shifts from the perceived benefits of restrictive immigration policies to the high and individualized costs. Accordingly, anti-deportation protests are predominantly organized on a local level, focusing on individual cases rather than on broader social and/or legal changes. The project’s findings show that there is no correlation between the numbers of deportations and the frequency and/or intensity of protests against them. However, the study has indicated that protests against deportations are strongly affected by national particularities. The media analysis has e.g. shown that protests against deportations partly differ among the three countries with regards to protest repertoires and actors involved. Furthermore, the qualitative case studies have underlined local particularities and the situational context. Future research thus has to pay particular attention to the sub-national level, as regional or even local political opportunity structures may influence both choice and effectiveness of protest repertoires. Another important finding from the qualitative case studies is that protests against deportation are not only carried out by the “usual suspects”, i.e. left-leaning social movement actors. Instead protest actors hold a wide spectrum of political views, including conservative, right-wing forces. With regard to impact, the analysis showed that protests often achieve their goals. Our data provided evidence for many situations in which the engagement of professionals or individuals with links to professionals (such as lawyers, counselors from NGOs or charities) led to a questioning of the procedures and finally to a deportation prevention. Protests in particular have a chance of being successful if they address judicial scrutiny or apply judicially informed strategies. Several of the case studies furthermore showed that the effectivity of anti-deportation protests can unfold after deportation enforcement. A continuous support may facilitate a legalization of the status of those deportees who obstinately returned to the country that has deported them. The project thus contributes to the discussion about social ties and emotions for anti-deportation protests. Social ties are not only necessary for initiating protests against deportation, but also for the maintenance of less visible practices of resistance and support. In sum, the project significantly contributed knowledge on deportation protests, overcoming limitations to a nation or time specific context of previous research. The project’s elaborated media analysis framework, including a detailed codebook, as well as the mixed data collection approach provides a template for future investigations in the field of protest and migration/asylum. Finally, the project fills the gap of studying migration related mobilization in social movement research. Since the focus on migration still tends to be underrepresented in social movement scholarship, future research will be able to build upon the perspectives provided by the Taking Sides project.
Publications
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2015: Von Dublin-Domino bis Kirchenasyl – Kämpfe um Dublin III, in: Movements. Journal for Critical Migration and Border Regime Studies, 1 (1)
Lorenz, David
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2017: Abschiebe-Protest-Kulturen: Abschiebungen als Konfliktfeld in Deutschland und Österreich zwischen 1993 und 2013, in: Daphie, Priska, Nicole Deitelhoff, Dieter Rucht, Simon Teune (Hg.): Protest in Bewegung. Zum Wandel von Bedingungen, Formen und Effekten politischen Protests, Leviathan Sonderband 33, 255-281
Rosenberger, Sieglinde, Helen Schwenken, Maren Kirchhoff, Nina Merhaut
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Between Illegalization, Toleration, and Recognition: Contested Asylum and Deportation Policies in Germany, in: Rosenberger et al. Protest Movements in Asylum and Deportation, IMISCOE Research Series, New York: Springer (2018), S. 49-68
Kirchhoff, Maren, David Lorenz
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Protests Revisited: Political Configurations, Political Culture and Protest Impacts in: Rosenberger et al. Protest Movements in Asylum and Deportation, IMISCOE Research Series, New York: Springer (2018), S. 273-291
D’Amato, Gianni, Helen Schwenken
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Worth the Effort: Protesting Successfully Against Deportations, in: Rosenberger, Sieglinde, Verena Stern, Nina Merhaut (eds.): Protest Movements in Asylum and Deportation, IMISCOE Research Series, New York: Springer (2018), S. 117-139
Kirchhoff, Maren, Johanna Probst, Helen Schwenken, Verena Stern
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“We Belong Together!” Collective Anti-deportation Protests in Osnabrück, in: Rosenberger et al. Protest Movements in Asylum and Deportation, IMISCOE Research Series, New York: Springer (2018), S. 163-184
Hinger, Sophie, Maren Kirchhoff and Ricarda Wiese
