The slow violence of life without cash: borders, state restrictions, and exclusion in the U.K. and Australia ⋆^⋆

⋆ In grateful acknowledgement of the time and energy of the Aboriginal justice organisations in the Northern Territory with whom I worked, to Karen Culcasi and Emily Skop for organizing this special issue, to David Kaplan and the helpful anonymous reviewers at the Geographical Review for their attention to detail and overarching narratives, to Lauren Martin and Deirdre Conlon for a precious ongoing collaboration, and to members of the Politics State Space research cluster in the Geography Department at Durham University who responded to a version of this paper.

Abstract

In the U.K., refused asylum seekers who are considered destitute are provided with subsistence‐level financial support through the Azure card, a cashless technology similar to a debit card. In Australia, identical technology is used to quarantine fifty percent of the welfare benefits of mainly Aboriginal residents of the Northern Territory. In this paper, I explore the underlying state logics driving such punitive financial policies directed at these populations, arguing that cashless technologies represent a form of slow violence that employs financial tactics to undermine the provision of care for populations with precarious citizenship status. Financial tactics enact new forms of border securitization, slowly but permanently excluding people with precarious claims to citizenship from participation in the nation

• Aboriginal Australians
• asylum seekers
• cashless
• care
• slow violence

⋆ In grateful acknowledgement of the time and energy of the Aboriginal justice organisations in the Northern Territory with whom I worked, to Karen Culcasi and Emily Skop for organizing this special issue, to David Kaplan and the helpful anonymous reviewers at the Geographical Review for their attention to detail and overarching narratives, to Lauren Martin and Deirdre Conlon for a precious ongoing collaboration, and to members of the Politics State Space research cluster in the Geography Department at Durham University who responded to a version of this paper.

⋆ In grateful acknowledgement of the time and energy of the Aboriginal justice organisations in the Northern Territory with whom I worked, to Karen Culcasi and Emily Skop for organizing this special issue, to David Kaplan and the helpful anonymous reviewers at the Geographical Review for their attention to detail and overarching narratives, to Lauren Martin and Deirdre Conlon for a precious ongoing collaboration, and to members of the Politics State Space research cluster in the Geography Department at Durham University who responded to a version of this paper.

Notes

⋆ In grateful acknowledgement of the time and energy of the Aboriginal justice organisations in the Northern Territory with whom I worked, to Karen Culcasi and Emily Skop for organizing this special issue, to David Kaplan and the helpful anonymous reviewers at the Geographical Review for their attention to detail and overarching narratives, to Lauren Martin and Deirdre Conlon for a precious ongoing collaboration, and to members of the Politics State Space research cluster in the Geography Department at Durham University who responded to a version of this paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kate Coddington

Dr. Kate Coddington, University at Albany, State University of New York, Department of Geography and Planning, 1400 Washington Ave, Albany, NY 12206; [[email protected]].