Conference Programme (PDF, 1019KB) - Trinity College Dublin

abstracts by stream and session
Governmentality of Immigration
Jennifer Dagg, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
This paper explores the statutory progression of a restrictive policy towards asylum and immigration in Ireland within the time frame of
1996-2009. This examination draws on Foucault’s concept of governmentality in order to explore the governmental rationalities that
inform the immigration process from a policy perspective. The analysis of governmental rationalities is supplemented by poststructuralist
discourse theory in order to examine the emergence of an exclusionary politics of asylum drawing out the exclusionary
narratives of control that emerge both in domestic and European political discourse.
Minority Ethnic Communities’ Access to Housing—Good Practice for Local Authorities
Vanda Clayton, Housing & Sustainable Communities Agency, Ireland
*Conor Farrell, Housing & Sustainable Communities Agency, Ireland
Inward migration to Ireland has large implications for the implementation of the State’s housing policies and the three main housing
tenures, private rented, social housing and owner occupation. Eighty-eight local authorities around Ireland are main bodies responsible
for the implementation of housing policies and the provision of housing services. The Private Residential Tenancies Board also has a
significant role in the regulation of private rented housing. Many if not all local authorities have witnessed a substantial increase in the
ethnic diversity of their populations in recent times. In the region of one in ten of those living in this country are non-Irish nationals
(Census 2006).
A central objective of Government housing policy is that communities should be sustainable. This was a central element of the
Government Statement on Housing Policy Delivering Homes Sustaining Communities (2007) which defined sustainable communities as
places where people want to live and work, now and in the future; places that meet the diverse needs of existing and future residents, are
sensitive to their environment, and contribute to a high quality of life. They are safe and inclusive, well-planned, built and run, offer
equality of opportunity and good services for all. The Statement also reaffirmed the core objective of housing policy: to enable every
household to have available an affordable dwelling of good quality, suitable to its needs, in a good environment and, as far as possible, at
the tenure of its choice and acknowledged that the needs of new migrants and minority ethnic groups have to be reflected in the pursuit
of sustainable housing and communities.
A second framework informing policy development at this time is the lifecycle approach. By this approach policy is assessed from the
perspective of meeting the needs of people throughout the lifecycle – young people, people of working age and older people and also
those with disabilities. In this respect, addressing the housing needs of minority ethnic communities at different stages of the lifecycle will
be an important consideration for local authorities.
The focus of this paper, therefore, is on how local authority practice might best address the housing needs of minority ethnic communities
keeping in mind the overall objective of achieving sustainable communities and addressing the needs of people throughout the lifecycle.
In many cases this may involve the consideration of the housing needs of minority ethnic communities in overall strategic planning and
service provision. In certain instances, however, it may require a more tailor-made response.
The paper will provide a number of good practice recommendations for local authorities under a number of headings; planning and
strategic management for housing minority ethnic communities; broadening the responses to housing need and pathways to home
ownership. It is hoped these good practice guidelines will help improve the local authorities response to the housing needs of minority
ethnic communities into the future.
SESSION 3d Managing Migration: Local, Regional and National Responses
Managing Migration in a Multi-National State: Regional vs. National Government Immigration Policy in Spain
Erica Dobbs, MIT Massachussetts Institute of Technology, USA
Immigration policy is generally the prerogative of national governments. In countries with federal political systems, however, conflicts
often arise between regional or local governments and national governments over immigration policy. These conflicts may intensify
during moments when anti-immigration sentiment runs high: in 2007, during a particularly nasty round in the ongoing debate over
immigration in the United States, over 1,000 state and local ordinances were proposed in order to “regulate” aspects of immigration
through zoning rules, “English-only” laws, or other symbolic measures (Migration Policy Institute 2008). However, in countries like the
U.S. with a history of migration, there are well-developed networks of political and social actors who respond to anti-immigration
flare-ups, and the U.S.’s status as a “nation of immigrants” is often invoked in the public debates around the issue. But what happens
when these kinds of tensions arise in new immigration states – places where there is no historical memory of immigration? How do
central governments respond?
This paper will explore this question by using Spain as a case. Until the 1990s, Spain was mainly known as a country of emigration not
immigration, but between 1990 and 2006, the foreign-born as a percentage of the total population rose from less than 2% to just over 10%
(INE). Spain is also extremely decentralized; its seventeen autonomous communities (‘comunidades autonomas’) have leeway to craft
their own laws around language, education, and a host of other issues. This flexibility is largely due to Spain’s status as a multi-national
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