This paper details the history of key policy events in various countries that led to the global diffusion of detention practices during the last 30 years and assesses some of the motives that appear to have encouraged this phenomenon. In telling this story, this paper seeks to flesh out some of the larger policy implications […]
Special Reports & Working PapersThematic reports and scholarly working papers produced wholly or in part by the Global Detention Project (GDP) and written by GDP staff members, associated researchers, or partner organisations.
Thematic reports and scholarly working papers produced wholly or in part by the Global Detention Project (GDP) and written by GDP staff members, associated researchers, or partner organisations.
International Law and Migration Detention: Coding State Adherence to Norms
Final Report of the Global Detention Project to the Swiss Network for International Studies This is the final report of the Global Detention Project’s three-year academic project assessing the relevance of intentional human rights norms to migration-related detention, which was funded by the Swiss Network for International Studies. The project, which was initially launched by […]
“Crimmigration” in the European Union through the Lens of Immigration Detention
The phenomenon of “crimmigration”—or the convergence of criminal and immigration laws—appears to have a harmful impact on migrants, ranging from increasing negative attitudes about non-citizens to more restrictive immigration policies. This Global Detention Project working paper argues that immigration detention regulated by European Union (EU) directives represents a peculiar manifestation of crimmigration. In particular, detention provisions […]
The Hidden Costs of Human Rights: The Case of Immigration Detention
Many liberal democracies betray a noticeable discomfort when it comes to public scrutiny of immigration detention, neglecting to release comprehensive statistics about it, cloaking detention practices in misleading names and phrases, and carefully choosing which activities they define as deprivation of liberty. On the other hand, these same countries have laboured to expand their detention […]
Smoke Screens: Is There a Correlation between Migration Euphemisms and the Language of Detention?
Discursive strategies used to describe people moving across borders can have consequences on their well-being, including limiting their access to legal procedures. This Global Detention Project working paper points to an apparent paradox in these strategies: While language used to describe migrants and asylum-seekers is often euphemistic (or dysphemistic), tending to dehumanise them, language used […]
A Survey of Private Contractor Involvement in U.S. Facilities Used to Confine People for Immigration-related Reasons
The private prison industry in the United States has grown significantly during the last several decades and along with it there has been an apparent increase in the outsourcing of services at facilities used for immigration detention purposes. However, while much has been written about private ownership and management of detention facilities, the phenomenon of […]
Immigration Detention in Canada
The Canadian Parliament is currently considering controversial “anti-smuggling” legislation which, if adopted, will “put a lot of emphasis on putting people behind bars before they get due process,” in the words of one member of Parliament. The legislation is part of a larger public debate in Canada regarding its social attitudes and legal responses to […]
Immigration Detention in Switzerland
This Global Detention Project Special Report provides a first-of-its-kind view of the Swiss immigration detention system. When compared to detention facilities elsewhere in Europe, some Swiss detention sites—like its Frambois facility, located just outside Geneva—have decidedly good reputations for their humane conditions. On the other hand, many Swiss detention practices and policies have been heavily […]
An Introduction to Data Construction on Immigration-related Detention
The aim of this paper is to introduce activists and scholars to efforts by the Global Detention Project to construct rigorous data on the facilities used to detain irregular migrants and asylum seekers in detention as they await deportation or to have their claims assessed. The paper proposes a set of conceptual tools that can be used to study […]
Immigration Detention and Proportionality
Immigration detention is characterized by a tension between the prerogatives of sovereignty and the rights of non-citizens. While states have broad discretion over who is allowed to enter and reside within their borders, their decision to detain and deport is constrained by a number of widely accepted norms and principles. One of these is the […]
