Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2018

Vertical spatial relegation in Switzerland: or how to use altitude to encourage rejected asylum seekers to 'disappear'

Résumé

I propose an analysis on how Switzerland uses remote localities, often situated in mountain areas, as a political instrument to encourage rejected asylum seekers to leave the country by reducing the costs of forced removals (Senarclens and Soysüren, 2017).‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ The aim is to show how mountains are politically instrumentalized as a mechanism of relegation. In that sense, the altitude is a tool at the disposal of the administrative apparatus to spatially marginalize people already juridically and socially excluded and that are subjected to a "double assignation identitaire et territoriale" (Hancock, 2008, page 118), i.e. a strictly demarcated social and territorial categorization. In the Swiss federal system, part of the housing facilities are managed by the cantonal authorities, which, in some cases sub-contract them to private companies (Alberti, 2018; de Coulon, 2013, page 207). In the last years, notably through the last reforms of the asylum law, there is a tendency to centralize some housing tasks at the national level via the opening of the so-called "federal centres" (Brina, 2017). Nevertheless, a number of people are and will still be housed in cantonal structures. In fact, asylum seekers, following the new law, will stay in federal centres for a maximum of 140 days. The others, the so-called "complex cases", i.e. cases that are following an "extended procedure", as well as rejected asylum seekers that Switzerland could not manage to deport, are, after 140 days, placed in cantonal centres. For rejected asylum seekers Switzerland designed and implemented special instruments to "precarise their living conditions" (Rey and Leyvraz, forthcoming) in order to push them to "willfully" leave the country. Housing them in mountain regions is one of the techniques used by some cantons. It is in this context that processes of vertical marginalization appeared as a tool to reach the double objective of deterrance and removal.

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Dates et versions

hal-04179967 , version 1 (10-08-2023)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-04179967 , version 1

Citer

Cristina del Biaggio. Vertical spatial relegation in Switzerland: or how to use altitude to encourage rejected asylum seekers to 'disappear'. WG2 Research Workshop "Tackling the migration and refugee challenge", EMPOWER-SE COST Action, EMES Network, Euricse, University of Trento, Nov 2018, Trento, Italy. ⟨hal-04179967⟩
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