Immigration detention and liberal democracies: Is it all about power or money; if money, why, if power, why not?

Abstract

Purpose

Liberal democratic states have involved the use of private companies for purposes of detention and the debate is whether such involvement is only for immigration control or whether they are primarily for macro-economic benefits. This paper aims to present the argument that a State wishing to detain migrants must do so within the purview of immigration control and in conformity to international human rights standards rather than other latent reasons such as macro-economic benefits. The exponential growths of immigration detention over the years, this paper argues, smack of latent reasons with unarguably macro-economic benefits accruing to these States.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology is doctrinal research focusing on immigration detention and privatization. Doctrinal research is library-based and reliance will be placed on primary and secondary materials such as legislations, case laws, soft laws on the one hand and textbooks, journals, articles, legal encyclopedia, databases and many valuable websites on the other hand.

Findings

Findings have been made of similarities in State practice between the UK, the USA and Australia and conclude that the trend is worrying given that privatization of the detention estate lends credence to the fact that growing international prison industry influences prison and detention policies.

Research limitations/implications

These have portent implications for the violations of the rights of detainees and weaken the protection of rights under international human rights law.

Originality/value

The originality of this paper lies in its ability to unravel the legitimacy of immigration detention in the face of privatization and macro-economic benefits accruing to States, thereby querying the availability of the rights of migrants within the remit of State practice.

Citation

Ikegwuruka, C. (2018), "Immigration detention and liberal democracies: Is it all about power or money; if money, why, if power, why not?", International Journal of Law and Management, Vol. 60 No. 5, pp. 1126-1147. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLMA-06-2017-0139