Abstract
For many, wage labour dictates the rhythm of everyday life, delineating hours of rest, recreation, and labour. For people seeking asylum – most of whom have no right to work and subsist on support payments below the level of destitution – such divisions are less clear. This makes grappling with the concepts of time and leisure in the asylum system important. People seeking asylum often wait years for a decision on their claim and, in the UK, the application process often involves multiple rounds of application and re-application over several years. This has profound implications for leisure. In this article, I explore the leisure practices of people seeking asylum in the city of Sheffield in the north of England. By looking at the temporal power exercised by the state over people seeking asylum, I consider access to parks and greenspaces; parties, drinking and smoking. I find that greater attention needs to be paid to informal use of greenspaces; leisure practices beyond targeted interventions to promote integration or cohesion; and discourses around legitimate leisure in the asylum system. I conclude by calling for more sustained engagement with what the temporal demands of the asylum system mean for how we understand leisure.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Leisure Studies |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 12 Jan 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.