Asylum Welfare and Work in the UK, 2015-2017

This project entailed a programme of research which sought to examine three aspects of this policy approach. First, the political and policy rationale of the policy, explored through a discourse analysis of political speeches, reports, parliamentary documents and debate transcripts, media and press releases. A corpus of 449 texts was gathered covering the period 2002-2016. Then 21 interviews with politicians and policy makers were undertaken. Second, an exploration of the economic rationale for the policy -how much does it cost to the public purse, what would alternative policy scenarios cost, and how much are third sector organisations spending on people who are supposed to be adequately supported by the state. Data for the costing for third sector spend was assembled from the Charity Commission database. Third, 30 interviews with people who have been through the asylum system, undertaken by refugee community researchers, explored everyday life on asylum support.<p>Most people who are awaiting a decision on their asylum application in the UK at the time of this project were not permitted to enter the labour market. In the absence of labour market access, they were then dependent on welfare support payments. This policy was justified by politicians on the basis that welfare and work act as pull factors for economic migrants who seek to abuse the asylum system by making spurious claims.
This project entailed a programme of research which sought to examine three aspects of this policy approach. First, the political and policy rationale of the policy, explored through a discourse analysis of political speeches, reports, media and press releases, and interviews with politicians and policy makers. Second, an exploration of the economic rationale for the policy -how much does it cost to the public purse, what would alternative policy scenarios cost, and how much are third sector organisations spending on people who are supposed to be adequately supported by the state. Third, interviews with people who have been through the asylum system, undertaken by refugee community researchers, which explored everyday life on asylum support. The project ran 2015-19 (incorporating one year of maternity leave for the PI 2017-18).</p>