Keeping it private or making it political? “Soft repression” and the depoliticisation of everyday conversations among pro-refugee volunteers

The literature on social movements has paid attention to the different forms of repression and criminalisation that states deploy against protestors and, sometimes, NGOs. In this chapter, drawing on Marx Ferree’s notion of “soft repression” we want to shed light on the more private and subtle forms of repressions that collective actors are subjected to in their everyday life. Our analysis of participants involved in the British refugee support sector since the so-called “refugee crisis” in 2015 shows that they often feel targeted by everyday hostile reactions on the part of non-state actors who aim to silence, suppress or ridicule their engagement. Focusing on participants’ responses to these hostile opinions, we show how (difficult) talks - often in their immediate social circles - about their action in support of refugees can be key moments through which they redefine and re-evaluate their own commitment. In particular, we underline the depoliticising effect of soft repression: as they try to avoid disagreement and conflict when they respond to hostile opinions, participants often tend to present their engagement following scripts of humanitarian “compassion” and neoliberal “self-development” rather than ideas of social justice and systemic change.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in della Porta and Steinhilper (eds.), Contentious Migrant Solidarity: Shrinking Spaces and Civil Society Contestation (2021), available online: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003083429-5