This paper investigates the issue of trust, or mistrust, specifically in relation to single adult asylum seekers and asylum seeker families compulsorily dispersed across England. It draws upon doctoral research on the social exclusion of asylum seekers as a result of dispersal and their separation from mainstream welfare provision due to the creation of the National Asylum Support Service (NASS) following the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. Trust is an ambiguous term and four forms of trust are delineated to assist conceptualizing the experience of forced migration: social, political, institutional and restorative trust. This paper provides an overview of the aims and each phase of the implementation of dispersal. It is argued that the dispersal system leaves little room for political or institutional trust to be restored and hinders the restoration of social trust. It is suggested that this lack of space for the restoration of trust has negative implications for the longer term resettlement process of asylum seekers who obtain refugee status. It is also suggested that trust is an essential component of UK government policies promoting social or community cohesion, community engagement and initiatives to combat trafficking, forced marriage and ‘honour’ based violence and that mistrust of asylum seekers as a group directly contradicts such policies and initiatives.

Sociologists have struggled to negotiate their relationship to human rights, yet human rights are now increasingly the focus of innovative sociological analysis. This opening contribution to ‘Sociology and Human Rights: New Engagements’ analyses how the relationship between sociology and human rights could be better conceptualised and taken forward in the future. The historical development of the sociology of human rights is first examined, with emphasis on the uneasy distancing of sociology from universal rights claims from its inception, and on radical repudiations influenced by Marx. We discuss how in the post-war period T.H. Marshall's work generated analysis of citizenship rights, but only in the past two decades has the sociology of human rights been developed by figures such as Bryan Turner, Lydia Morris and Anthony Woodiwiss. We then introduce the individual contributions to the volume, and explain how they are grouped. We suggest the need to deepen existing analyses of what sociology can offer to the broad field of human rights scholarship, but also, more unusually, that sociologists need to focus more on what human rights related research can bring to sociology, to renew it as a discipline. Subsequent sections take this forward by examining a series of themes including: the relationship between the individual and the social; the need to address inequality; the challenge of social engagement and activism; and the development of interdisciplinarity. We note how authors in the volume contribute to each of these. Finally we conclude by summarising our proposals for future directions in research.

Within the UK, trafficking of children and young people into, within and out of the country has become an increasingly important and debated issue over the past decade. Although not a new phenomenon, human trafficking has risen up the policy agendas of many countries since the end of the Cold War. This type of forced migration is inextricably linked to the promotion and protection of human rights – be they civil, political, social, economic or cultural rights – and as such it is important that the broader social processes involved are understood and researched by sociologists. This contribution draws upon qualitative research into practitioner responses to trafficking of children conducted by the University of Bedfordshire and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in the UK. A key finding of this study was that trafficking of children is often viewed as a one-off ‘event’ by those who have a duty to care for children and young people. It is argued that viewing trafficking as a broader sociological process rather than an event enables a greater understanding of the environmental backgrounds of individual children and the human rights contexts within countries of origin as well as subsequent migration trajectories. It is suggested that this may lead to an enhanced ability to identify children as having been trafficked by those with a duty to care for children. The literature from the multidisciplinary fields of refugee studies and forced migration is drawn upon where applicable.

While the drivers and processes of forced migration may overlap for people seeking refuge or experiencing human trafficking, responses are invariably rooted in legislation and policy rather than empirical enquiry. In the UK, tightening of legislation around asylum has, for the past three decades, resulted in a ‘hostile environment’. During this time, a discourse around human trafficking (also referred to as ‘modern slavery’ in the UK) has emerged. This paper looks at asylum and human trafficking in the UK to consider a fractioning of protection and resulting fractioning of support for basic needs and welfare provision, provided through the establishment of parallel systems of support for both populations. This paper explores the distinctions, interface, key points of contact, and disconnects between asylum and trafficking in the UK. It details the trajectory of asylum policy, provides an overview of the pre-history to the hostile environment, the impacts of fractioning refugee protection, and what this means for trust as a result. It is argued that trust is an essential component of UK government policies but that the trajectory of asylum policy from a focus on integration to a culture of hostility runs directly counter to efforts to identify ‘victims’ of ‘modern slavery’.

This book establishes asylum seekers as a socially excluded group, investigating the policy of dispersing asylum seekers across the UK and providing an overview of historic and contemporary dispersal systems. It is the first book to seek to understand how asylum seekers experience the dispersal system and the impact this has on their lives. The author argues that deterrent asylum policies increase the sense of liminality experienced by individuals, challenges assumptions that asylum seekers should be socially excluded until receipt of refugee status, and illustrates how they create their own s ... More This book establishes asylum seekers as a socially excluded group, investigating the policy of dispersing asylum seekers across the UK and providing an overview of historic and contemporary dispersal systems. It is the first book to seek to understand how asylum seekers experience the dispersal system and the impact this has on their lives. The author argues that deterrent asylum policies increase the sense of liminality experienced by individuals, challenges assumptions that asylum seekers should be socially excluded until receipt of refugee status, and illustrates how they create their own sense of ‘belonging’ in the absence of official recognition.