Thursday 21st March 2024 12.30-13.30

Join us for this lunchtime seminar to hear about the research of two early career scholars within our network!

A threat in the air? Stereotype threat and the asylum interview

Poppy James, Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield

It is now well established that asylum seekers as a social group are negatively stereotyped, and that the dominant cultural stereotype, emanating from asylum policy and political rhetoric, concerns their legitimacy. The theory of stereotype threat suggests that negative group stereotypes can impair the performance of stigmatized individuals on tasks for which the stereotype is deemed relevant (Steele & Aaronson, 1995). My thesis explores stereotype threat in the context of the asylum interview: - Study 1 (qualitative methodology) explores the potential for stereotype threat to occur during the asylum interview. - Study 2 (experimental methodology) investigates on the impact of stereotype threat on asylum seekers testimony, by way of depleted working memory. As well as improving our understanding of the challenges facing people who seek asylum, the research highlights the importance of service design and interventions designed to reduce stereotype threat effects.

Forced Migration of Iraqi Kurds to the UK: Pre Arrival experiences and Post Arrival Slow Violence

Sameerah Mahmood, Politics Department, University of Leeds

My research will aim to investigate the forced migration of Kurds from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to the UK. I will be looking into the reason why people have left the KRG since the 2014 Daesh war in Iraq and chose to come to the UK as their preferred destination. For my fieldwork, I will conduct in-depth interviews with Kurds asylum seekers’ to investigate their pre-arrival experiences and aspirations. Then, I intend to explore their post arrival difficulties and challenges. Focusing on the UK’s asylum system and the government’s responses to the rise in the Channel crossings, I aim to interview professionals, policy makers and stakeholders to explore, assess and contest their responses to policies and working with or on subjects relevant to asylum seekers and refugees. I am keen to research the colonial legacies that impact upon decision making when Iraqi Kurds choose a country to migrate to. I will be examining the impact of the hostile environment representations through focusing on deterrence policies and slow violence of reception in the UK. Then, through the data I gather, I will explore the consequences of the government’s policies have on the experiences of asylum seekers and stakeholders.