IRiS Research Fellow, Dr Rachel Humphris, has produced an interesting journal article recently published in The Sociological Review.
The article, titled ‘Mutating faces of the state? Austerity, migration and faith-based volunteers in a UK downscaled urban context’, explores how austerity, welfare conditionality and the hostile environment combine to effect policy and practice towards new migrants. It argues that volunteers become the 'face of the state' acting with discretion and negotiating uncertainty by reproducing religious and local narratives of migration reshaping the local state.
The article is available here and is open access. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0038026118793035
Find out more information about the ‘Welcoming Cities’ project. https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/social-policy/departments/social-policy-sociology-criminology/research/projects/2017/Welcoming-Cities.aspx