“It was the photograph of the little boy”: reflections on the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme in the UK

ABSTRACT

This article examines the “Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme” (SVPRP) as a specific British response to the “European refugee crisis”. Based on an analysis of media reporting (2014–17) and empirical evidence from agencies and volunteers tasked with implementing the programme, this essay reveals the ethical and political ambiguities at its heart. By focusing on the notion of “vulnerability” I argue that the humanitarian configuration of a refugee worthy of care is implicated in two significant practices: exceptionalising a small group of Syrians as legitimate targets for compassion and constructing compassion itself as a rationed resource in a climate of anti-immigrant hostility, austerity and Brexit.

KEYWORDS:

• Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme
• refugee crisis
• Britain
• vulnerability
• compassion
• volunteering

Acknowledgements

I am especially grateful to Jenny Cuffe who conducted much of the interview research with me and whose engaging comments were invaluable for conceiving this paper. For their insightful feedback I thank Silke Roth and the anonymous referees of this journal. Most importantly, I would like to thank the research participants who generously shared their experiences.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Heidi Armbruster http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5630-5896

Notes

1 E.g., CSJ 2017; ICI 2018; IDC 2015; NAO 2016; PAC 2017; UNHCR 2017; Weir, Wilson, and Gorman 2018.

2 For a critique of this definition see Gilson 2014. “Vulnerability” has become increasingly popular in a wide range of fields, including social policy, development and bioethics (see Brown 2011).

3 See also Ahmed 2014; Cole 2016.

4 Historically the UK has not provided major resettlement schemes. The “Gateway Protection Programme” in operation since 2004 offers resettlement for 750 individuals each year. For resettlement of Syrians in international perspective see Ostrand 2015.

5 Security Council 7504TH Meeting* (PM) 17 August 2015. Alarmed by Continuing Syria Crisis, Security Council Affirms Its Support for Special Envoy's Approach in Moving Political Solution Forward. https://www.un.org/press/en/2015/sc12008.doc.htm [accessed 27 April 2018].

6 In late 2017 non-Syrian nationals who had fled the Syrian conflict were included in the programme. They remain a small minority among beneficiaries so far (ICI 2018, 14, 45). As of March 2017 5,453 Syrians were resettled under the scheme (McGuinness 2017, 3). According to a government source the figure had risen to 10,538 by March 2018. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-october-to-december-2017/how-many-people-do-I-grant-asylum-or-protection-to#resettlement.

7 Initially beneficiaries were awarded humanitarian protection; in 2018 this was replaced by refugee status.

8 I conducted a keyword search (“Syrian refugees”; “Syrian refugee resettlement”) in Nexis and viewed a total of 255 news items. Visual representations were excluded. For an insightful discussion of “refugee crisis” news images see Chouliaraki and Stolic 2017.

9 This was particularly observable in 2014.

10 June 2017.

11 This refers to the legal hierarchy between asylum seekers and refugees.

12 Despite dominant media references to “camps”, most resettled families lived outside camps prior to their departure, as do the majority of displaced Syrians (Turner 2015).