Racialised deservingness and peripheral whiteness: the case of Albanian asylum seekers in Britain

This article explores the racialisation of deservingness as experienced by Albanian asylum seekers in Britain. It uses the concept of peripheral whiteness to analyse how their deservingness is constructed and the tactics they use to appear deserving. Drawing on narrative interviews with 44 Albanian asylum seekers aged 16–25 during 2021–2023, the findings show that they interpret their deservingness as structured by two mechanisms of safety and suspicion within their asylum encounters. These operate along racial logics whereby their racialisation positions them as too white and European to be considered unsafe, yet peripheral white and therefore too suspect to be genuine. In response, they adjust their deservingness through restraint, politeness and individuation of risk, and some use the interview space to rework country-level assumptions of safety whilst being attentive to procedural repercussions. The article contributes by showing how peripheral whiteness operates as an evaluative heuristic within asylum governance and by specifying how a moral economy of asylum is reproduced from below through applicants’ deservingness work and tactical self-representation.