Abstract
Reviewed by: Frieda Park, Independent Social Work Educator, Scotland
This book explores the language used to describe asylum seekers by politicians, the media and social workers. It argues that negative depictions of asylum seekers are not usually framed in crude racist terms, of inferiority based on biological categories, but rather, this is done by representing them as ‘other’. This is achieved by drawing distinctions between ‘them’ and ‘us’ – ‘our values/culture’, ‘their values/cultures’ and so on. The language of being flooded, overwhelmed or of military invasion is also frequently deployed. By contrast in these narratives, Britain is represented as a compassionate country doing what it can but constrained by resources and challenged by those who would take advantage of our good will. To reinforce this, negative qualities are associated with asylum seekers, such as the threat they pose to the nation in terms of its ability to cope, the possible dangerousness of individuals and whether or not their claims to asylum are genuine. In this way, asylum seekers become a uniform and threatening group. They are no longer individual human beings deserving of our compassion and support. They have been made ‘other’. This othering of asylum seekers Masocha describes as ‘xenoracism’, a racism grounded in foreignness rather than biology.
The author argues that we need to be more alert to this type of racism and ensure that we frame our language and our descriptions of asylum seekers in positive ways, which challenge depictions which are prevalent in politics and the media. He argues that social workers are not immune from the language round about them and are influence by it. This is illustrated by the findings of a study of 25 social workers from a Scottish local authority reported in Chapters 4 and 5 of the book. Chapter 4 concentrates on the majority of interviewees who expressed empathy with the asylum seekers they worked with and challenged negative stereotypes. Chapter 5, on the other hand, deals with the small minority whose views were negative and judgemental, conforming more to the ‘hegemonic narrative’ around asylum. Although Masocha questions whether social work values are up to challenging xenoracism, it appears that most social workers in this study rose to the challenge. It was worrying, however, that a minority expressed discriminatory attitudes, and it is valuable that this is brought to light in the book.
Masocha argues that by improving our understanding of how language is used, we can improve our practice so that it is more inclusive and culturally sensitive. Whilst one feels this must be true, the limits of the study mean that this thesis is not tested out by examining the impact of language and narratives around asylum in practice.
The book touches on related contentious areas which historically have been central to the nature of social work as a profession: care versus control and the deserving versus the undeserving. The negative construction of asylum seekers is also seen to sit within these debates. It would be interesting to explore this further. How are negative views about asylum seekers different from negative constructions of other groups which might be perceived as ‘undeserving’, such as people with addiction problems? Are social workers more actively agents of control working in the asylum system than, for example, in statutory child care settings? Do the social workers in the study who had negative views about asylum seekers hold negative views about other service user groups they work with? Do the working environments in which social workers are employed counter or contribute to their perceptions of asylum seekers?
This does not detract from the value of this book in analysing how asylum seekers are depicted, how they are made ‘other’ and how professionals can take on these negative views. In fact, it underlines the importance of more work being done in this field.
In addition to the central narrative, the book has a useful chapter which concisely describes the development of asylum and immigration law in Britain and another which analyses how politicians and the media describe asylum seekers. The book also draws parallels with the treatment of the issue in other countries, such as Australia and the Netherlands.
Whilst practitioners may find the language, in parts, quite academic, the book will be helpful to social workers, students and educators who wish to explore the development of policy, the law and depictions of asylum seekers. Hopefully, it will also give practitioners confidence to begin to challenge discriminatory language and practice.