McGregor, Callum

Ward, Sarah

Kirkland, Amy

2026-04-15T12:25:02Z

2025

Of the many challenges faced by the UK hospitality industry over recent years, among the most divisive has been the rise in ‘asylum hotels’, and the polarising, abrasive debate surrounding their use. Quietly hidden and overlooked within this social justice debate is a group of people about whom there is little or no research in terms of the impact the rise of ‘asylum hotels’ has had on them – the hotel teams themselves. Subject to short notice changes to working conditions, a vastly reduced hotel team, and daily exposure to the stories and experiences of the asylum seekers living in the hotel, they find themselves in a work environment that is worlds apart from the one they knew before. Outside of work the relentless focus on asylum hotels in the media, conflicting opinions within communities, work peers, family and friends, mean that this new world is all-encompassing. Gaining rare and privileged access into a UK asylum hotel to undertake a qualitative research study has yielded rich insights into the experiences of the hotel team there. Underpinned by standpoint epistemology in order to amplify the marginalised voices of the hotel team, themes relating to their changing experiences of hospitality, the daily challenges faced, the ways in which their roles have become better and worse and the impacts on them professionally and personally throughout their time there were all discussed. What emerged from the research were findings which gave voice to theories of the underlying contradictions of hospitality and hostility; of the role of hotels within the carceral border system; of vicarious trauma and emotional connectedness; of team spirit and personal growth. In addressing this gap in the literature I hope that the findings will be of use in a variety of ways, from helping to inform future asylum system policy-making to learning lessons about how we take care of those working in the hospitality industry in the UK and beyond.

https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/44573

https://doi.org/10.7488/era/7091

en

The University of Edinburgh. College of Humamities and Social Sciences

Asylum

‘The Hospitality of Asylum’ Investigating the potential impacts on hotel workers of operating asylum hotels in the UK

Thesis

Masters

MSc Master of Science