Taking Sides: Protest Against the Deportation of Asylum Seekers

In the era of the "deportation turn" within liberal democracies, certain sections of the population express unease and moral outrage towards the forcible expulsion of non-citizens from the state territory. Against this background, the project Taking Sides analyses anti-deportation protest trajectories in the three D/A/CH countries - Germany (D), Austria (A), and Switzerland (CH) - trans-nationally, over a period of 15 years, and by developing a new synthesis of different theoretical strands to explain variation. Aiming at exploring and explaining the goals, form and degree of diverse anti-deportation protest activities across countries and time (1995-2010), the project seeks to answer the following research questions: What shapes the trajectories of protest against the deportation of asylum seekers and what is characteristic and even distinct about anti-deportation protest? How can we explain variation in the goals, forms, and degree of anti-deportation protest, both across countries and over time? How relevant are structural factors vis-à-vis agency and resources? What role do emotional and social ties to deportees play in explaining anti- deportation protest? Assuming that variation not only occurs across nation states, but also within countries and even between individual deportation cases, we will apply and redefine a tripartite explanatory model developed for this project proposal. The model considers (a) the political opportunity structure for anti-deportation protest that is characteristic for each of the three countries, (b) dynamics resulting from changes in the political environment as well as from previous protest in the field, and (c) material and non-material resources available to protest actors and deportees. Thus, by establishing a dialogue between migration research, political science, and social movement research, the project develops an integrated perspective combining the political opportunity structure approach with the resource mobilization perspective and further develops the two by integrating political dynamics and emotional processes into the analysis. The project applies a mixed method approach for data collection and analysis. A media claims analysis will be completed by a series of in-depth case studies to collect information on the composition of protest groups and their resources, their social ties to deportees, and the course and reach of the protest. The added value of investigating protest in three (partly similar, partly different) countries is to fill the lack of comparative analysis across national contexts and longer periods of time that would provide insights into the dynamics of such protest, the composition of protest groups and their aims and protest activities. The expected results will contribute to explaining factors of these altruistic, small-scale protest activities.

Deportations of rejected asylum seekers are a forceful tool of immigration control. However, deportations do not remain unchallenged. They have been met with fierce protest by affected immigrants and concerned citizens. The research project Taking Sides explored trajectories, dynamics and effects of protest activities against the deportation of asylum seekers over a period of twenty years (1993 to 2013). It analysed protest events reported in the mass media in three European countries Austria, Germany and Switzerland. This longitudinal media analysis was combined and complemented with in-depth case studies of key protests in support of specific individuals with deportation orders. By European standards, the selected countries have a history of receiving comparatively large numbers of refugees fleeing different war zones and civil unrest. At the same time, from the 1990s, deportation has been established as a central measure to restrict refugee movement and enforce border control regimes. In the 1990s and early 2000s the three countries under investigation observed what is academically called a deportation turn; that is, rising numbers of forceful returns. The comparative study found that the majority of protests are viewed as solidarity protests, i.e. protest by citizens and civil society organizations supporting rejected asylum seekers. In many cases, the beneficiaries of protests are individuals or families, who have already lived for a certain period of time in the local community from which they are about to be forcefully removed. Social relations play, thus, an important role in the emergence and dynamics of protests against deportation. By defending a certain individual, the protestors call for an exemption from the rule based on moral or human rights imperatives rather than for general rights or a change of migration policies. However, protest goals vary to some extent between the countries studied by the project. In Germany, compared to Austria and Switzerland, both transnational goals and critique of the border regime are more frequent. Anti-deportation protest is predominantly a local phenomenon; and citizens reactions to deportations, are mostly non-violent, violent or illegal repertoires, damage to property or other persons are almost absent.The Taking Sides study also showed that anti-deportation protests are successful. A major proportion of deportation cases were blocked, administrative decisions were revoked by state authorities and the individuals in question received a (temporary) right to stay in the country. This success is likely to be related to the breadth of the protest alliances, ranging from ordinary citizens with almost no protest record to established local elites of good repute.As publications demonstrate, the studies results expand both academic and civic knowledge of collective action preventing the enforcement of deportations.