Encountering authority and avoiding trouble: Young migrant men’s narratives of negotiation in Europe
| Author | Claire Fox,Jo Deakin,Jon Spencer,Necla Acik |
| Published date | 01 July 2022 |
| Date | 01 July 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1477370820924627 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370820924627
European Journal of Criminology
© The Author(s) 2020
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/1477370820924627
journals.sagepub.com/home/euc
Encountering authority and
avoiding trouble: Young
migrant men’s narratives
of negotiation in Europe
Claire Fox
Jo Deakin
Jon Spencer
University of Manchester, UK
Necla Acik
University of Middlesex, UK
Abstract
Drawing on data from seven European countries (Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland,
Italy and the United Kingdom), this article seeks to identify how young migrant men engage with
authority and avoid conflict against a backdrop of increasing hostility towards migrants in many
European countries. As this article contends, even those with permanent residency status in the
host country often find themselves having to justify their legitimacy to carry out daily tasks, resulting
in many young male migrants living with feelings of perpetual insecurity. As such, a number of coping
strategies are employed by young migrant men in order to assuage such feelings and mitigate potential
risks. Focusing on the lived experiences of this group, as described in narrative interviews, our study
found that many young migrant men are required to enter into negotiations with authority figures,
where there is a considerable power differential. Acting as risk assessors, they find themselves forced
to navigate complex and challenging social relations and support networks. We show how self-
limiting behaviour intended to avoid or control interactions with authority and the negotiations
conducted to minimize the risk of ‘trouble’ by young migrant men not only are problematic in the
context of day-to-day activities but can very often have a detrimental impact on their lives.
Keywords
Migrant, insecurity, safety, men, police
Corresponding author:
Claire Fox, Department of Criminology, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester, Oxford Road,
Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.
Email: claire.fox-2@manchester.ac.uk
924627EUC0010.1177/1477370820924627European Journal of CriminologyFox et al.
research-article2020
Article
2022, Vol. 19(4) 791–810
Introduction
Although there has been a long history of migration in Europe (Cohen, 2006), it has not
been without difficulty, particularly over the past decade (Geddes and Scholten, 2016).
During this time, many European countries have witnessed a political lurch to the right,
with more mainstream parties placing the ‘threat’ of migration at the forefront of their
campaigns as justification for building ‘hostile environments’ to discourage migrants
from coming or staying (with very few exceptions – see Canning, 2019). ‘Crimmigration’
policies and legislation have become a common feature across Europe (Fabini, 2017).
That is not to suggest that the patterns, strength and targets of hostilities have been identi-
cal across the European Union. There are, as Cohen argued, significant disparities to be
considered:
In Germany and Britain . . . xenophobia has long roots. In France, with its stronger tradition of
citizenship and assimilation, it has come as a relatively recent realization that some . . . are
unlikely to be accepted and peacefully absorbed. In the southern countries of Europe . . . the
general recognition of alarming levels of xenophobia is a post-1990s phenomenon.
(Cohen, 2006: 89)
However, commonalities exist across Europe and internationally (see Melossi, 2015;
Nakhid, 2018), not least around the processes of (mis)representation and labelling of
migrant groups. ‘Respectable fears’ (Pearson, 1983) over the rise in immigration have
been stoked and heightened by political rhetoric and media (mis)representations
(Friedman and Klein, 2008). As a population, young migrant men are viewed with par-
ticular suspicion and distrust, whether over their right to enter the country, their motiva-
tions for doing so, or the risk they are thought to pose to the ‘native’ population and the
‘values’ of that country. Hostility towards migrants and related community divisions are
viewed in part on the basis of perceptions of fairness and entitlement in the allocation of
resources within the welfare state, including the turnover of children in schools and the
difficulties associated with teaching those with different languages and cultures (Ford,
2007; Pillai et al., 2007). Citing ‘mass migration’ and the strain that it can place upon
shared resources is a familiar tactic employed by sections of the media. It is also common
for media reporting around migrants to conflate them with criminality (Migration
Observatory, 2013) by citing their ‘illegal’ immigration status or their attempts to dupe
the ‘host’ country, using imagery that conjures up the stereotypes of the ‘threatening’
young migrant male (Buchanan and Grillo, 2004). Fabini (2019) found that, conscious of
avoiding unwelcome attention from the police, many migrants sought to minimize the
chances of being stopped by employing strategies to evade the attentions of the police,
such as avoiding alcohol, dressing well and opting to avoid clustering with peer groups.
Presented as a modern-day ‘folk devil’ (Cohen, 2002; Alexander, 2000), young
migrant men are frequently constructed as a risky population, associated with dangerous-
ness, terrorism and disorder (Herz, 2019). This has been particularly acute in the case of
young Muslim men (Archer, 2003; Mythen et al., 2009). It has created what Tyler (2013:
4) has termed ‘abject subjects’. Influenced by Kristeva’s (1982; 1991: 41) work on the
792 European Journal of Criminology 19(4)
To continue reading
Request your trial