Reynolds, Tracey ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9618-6318, Erel, Umut and O'Neill, Maggie (2025) Migrant women opposing governmental performative politics and the hostile environment. Sociological Research Online. ISSN 1360-7804 (Online) (In Press)

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Abstract

The increasingly restrictive and punitive hostile environment policies reinforce the Conservative Government stance of being ‘tough on immigration’. In public debates the government continues to champion lesser rights for racialised migrants through three key aspects of ‘performative politics’: the creation of social realities, social identities, and social relationships (Saward 2017)). In this paper we illustrate how the policy of No Recourse to Public Funding (NRPF) is an example of this performative politics, and we also explore how migrant mothers challenge this performative politics through a critical oppositional politics in their everyday lives and through a theatre based project we worked on together. The paper reflects on how the mothers and the researchers draw on Participatory Action Research (PAR) and forum theatre-based approaches to articulate a critical understanding of how the lived experiences of hostile environment policies is underpinned by race, gender, class, migration intersectional identities. Collaborating through PAR allowed the research team and participants to oppose prevailing discourses of the government concerning migrants by offering a creative space, platform, and tools for racialized migrants to try out oppositional representations and develop collective strategies, to publicly resist and counter the demeaning impact speak out against the demeaning impact of hostile environment policies and facilitate their communities to do the same.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	University of Surrey / University of Stirling / Sage Publications Ltd. / British Sociological Association.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	performative politics, intersectional analysis, migrant mothers, No Recourse Public Funding (NRPF), Participatory Action Research, intersectional analysis
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN2000 Dramatic representation. The Theater
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences > School of Humanities & Social Sciences (HSS)
Last Modified:	21 Feb 2025 16:22
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/49813

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