Classification and Control: Purity and Danger in Britain’s Asylum Regime

This article engages Douglas caution against an ‘unsociological view of cognition’ that fails to recognise classification as an epistemological issue. In so doing, it offers a conceptual framework for addressing this linkage in relation to British attempts to define asylum all-but out of existence. Taking Zetter’s account of the fragmentation of refugee status as a starting point, and outlining the relevance of civic stratification for his argument, the article addresses the shift from viewing asylum primarily as forced migration to a focus on irregular entry. This shift is considered with respect to the role of classification as a mode of control, Mary Douglas treatment of ‘purity and danger’, Britain’s deployment of deterrent policy and the significance of a supporting ‘moral’ frame.