The politics of discretion: authority and influence in asylum dispersal

Darling, J.

Abstract

This paper considers how discretion, understood as both a capacity to make decisions and a form of influence that is often hidden, operates within the accommodation and support of asylum seekers. Combining critical discussions of discretion with accounts of a ‘local turn’ in migration policy, I argue that discretion plays a key role in shaping how policy is implemented and offers insight into the changing governance of asylum at national and local levels. Drawing on empirical material examining the development of the UK's asylum dispersal system, the paper extends accounts of discretion beyond ‘street-level’ to argue for a focus on how discretion reflects different claims to institutional authority. Addressing four accounts of discretion in dispersal, I argue that tracing discretion can offer insights into how ‘implementation gaps’ in asylum policy are negotiated and how tensions between national and local governments are contained. Tracing discretion in this way may advance critical interrogations of power relations in welfare bureaucracies and develop understandings of institutional agency and influence within liberal democracies.

Citation

Darling, J. (2022). The politics of discretion: authority and influence in asylum dispersal. Political Geography, 94, Article 102560. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102560

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 7, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Dec 23, 2021
• Publication Date: 2022-04
• Deposit Date: Feb 15, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 24, 2023
• Journal: Political Geography
• Print ISSN: 0962-6298
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 94
• Article Number: 102560
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102560