Andrew Crosby

Andrew Crosby is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Migration, Diversity and Justice Research Centre at the Brussels School of Governance. Andrew has a degree in Philosophy and in International and European Law, both obtained at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Andrew obtained his PhD in political and social sciences at the Université libre de Bruxelles with an original dissertation on the autonomisation of migration policy-making, focusing on the case of immigration detention in Belgium. In his PhD he focused on how non-custodial staff, whose task it is to guarantee basic rights in detention, produce new forms of institutional violence that bar access to rights for detainees. Prior to his doctorate Andrew also worked on border control issues, in particular at the airports of Schiphol and Charles de Gaulle. His work has analysed processes of illegalisation and the social construction of “undesirable” foreigners. 

Andrew’s postdoctoral research focused on disadvantaged youth with a migratory background in Brussels. The focus of the research lied on public policies toward youth who are neither in education, employment or training (NEET). In particular, he looked into the reasons why these youths do or do not make use of the wide array of public services intended to help them either go back to school, find a job or train for specific skills. The research has shown that in part this is due to inadequate policies, lack of decent outreach practices and coordination among actors in the complex Brussels web of institutions and organisations. 

Andrew is developing a project on the externalization of European border control policies in West-Africa. In particular, he wishes to look at how grassroot organisations in the Gambia and Senegal position themselves with regard to migration: what views and narratives on migration do they hold, what practices do they develop to enable or prevent which kinds of migration, how do they position themselves with regard to returnees, funding schemes, local and regional authorities, etc.? 

His main theoretical inspirations are Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu, which he articulates with organizational sociology and implementation studies. Andrew also teaches sociology of education at the Université catholique de Louvain.  

Recent publications 

• The Humanization of Immigration Detention and the Abjection of Detainees, in Federica Infantino and Djordje Sredanovic (eds.) Migration Control in Practice: Before and Within the Borders of the State, Brussels, Éditions de l’Université de Bruxelles, 2022, pp. 225-246. 

• The Irregularization of Mobility: Performing Border Control at the Airport, in Federica Infantino and Djordje Sredanovic (eds.) Migration Control in Practice: Before and Within the Borders of the State, Brussels, Éditions de l’Université de Bruxelles, 2022, pp. 99-135 (with Andrea Rea). 

• Être ou ne pas être NEET ? La complexité des transitions études-marché de l’emploi à Bruxelles, Brussels Studies, Collection générale, n° 175, 2023, DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/brussels.6357 (with Géraldine André). 

• The “NEET” category from the perspective of inequalities: toward a typology of school-to-work transitions among youth from lower class neighborhoods in the Brussels region (Belgium), Journal of Youth Studies, 2022, DOI: 10.1080/13676261.2022.2098707 (with Géraldine André).