Restless Justice - Asylum, Homelessness and Volunteering

Amid the global migration crisis, the UK has created an increasingly hostile policy environment for asylum seekers that has pushed many into unnecessary hardship and homelessness. Based on several years of ethnographic research in emergency night shelters and on the streets of Manchester, UK, Restless justice draws on the stories and experiences of refused asylum seekers and refugees driven into destitution by an antagonistic immigration system. The book explores how legal and temporal uncertainty shapes the daily lives of those who have had their asylum claims refused, and attends to the experiences of volunteers and activists working on the frontline of the crisis. While the work is rich in detail, it also extends outwards and offers new insights into our understanding of borders and the need to rethink the grand notions of justice and hospitality.

About the author

Mark Justin Rainey is a Research Associate in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Irish Studies at the University of Galway.

Product details

• Authors: Mark Rainey, Rainey Mark
• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 28.01.2026
• EAN: 9781526145543
• ISBN: 978-1-5261-4554-3
• No. of pages: 136
• Series: New Ethnographies
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Education > Social education, social work; Social sciences, law, business > Social sciences (general); SOCIAL SCIENCE / Poverty & Homelessness, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Urban, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Refugees, Sociology & anthropology, Sociology and anthropology, Refugees and political asylum, Refugees & Political Asylum, Housing and homelessness, Homelessness