Implementing immigration detention – a configurational analysis

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in three different immigration detention centres in Belgium, I discuss the evolution of the practical implementation and organization of the detention policy. From an organizational perspective, I analyse the practical implementation as the result of specific configurations of power relations between the different categories of staff present in Immigraton Office (IO), which is the public administration in charge of the detention policy. In this paper I will analyse three different configurations, which led to three different ideal-types of policy implementation in the different centres. These power struggles always revolved around what the different actors in these configurations considered to be the best way to run the centres. These visions and practices opposed visions of security and of humane treatment. The paper contributes to existing literature in migration studies in three ways. First, of all it sheds light on detention practices in Belgium, which hitherto have not been studied through direct observations. Secondly, it further develops the theories of the “humanitarian border” developed by William Walters by analysing how the humanitarian reason has been integrated in very securitized settings such as detention facilities. Lastly, the analysis of configurations of power to understand policy implementation, makes it possible to compare such configurations across different (sub)fields of immigration studies. As such, this paper opens the discussion in two directions. First, I argue that this “configurational analysis” can settle debates on whether there is an “implementation gap” or whether immigration policies have been “securitized” or have become more liberal. Secondly, I argue it makes it possible to understand the differences between the subfields of border control and integration policies in which the rights of immigrants have a different weight.