Exploring hospitality, hostility and (un)home in accommodation for asylum seekers in the UK

The number of asylum seekers housed in hotels in the UK on behalf of the Home Office is unprecedented and requires specific attention. Utilising hotels on such a large scale as longer-term accommodation for asylum seekers has brought a new range of actors into this space who have responsibility for the day-to-day care of refugees and asylum seekers, many of whom have experienced high levels of trauma. The involvement of hoteliers and housing companies in hosting asylum seekers, individuals who by definition are guests seeking the hospitality of a nation state, suggests the need to unite two bodies of literature – on the hospitality industry and on the right to seek and enjoy asylum – in a way that sheds new light on conceptions of home and the broader theme of what it means to offer welcome. The concepts of home-making and home-unmaking have until recently been largely absent from scholarship. We offer a new conceptual framework that brings together concepts of hospitality and home. We apply this framework to two case studies of recent incidents in asylum hotel accommodation to bring insight into the implications of such policies for host and guest communities.