In recent years Scotland has discursively positioned itself as an inclusive society that embraces minorities through a civic rather than ethnic nationalism, yet there are increasing instances of institutional and public Islamophobia in particular against those racialised as Muslim, namely Scots of Pakistani heritage. Thus, Scottish-Pakistanis are positioned between contradictory discourses; included within the context of Scottish civic nationalism, yet Othered through everyday Islamophobic encounters, compelling them to engage in complex negotiations between ethnic, national, and other identities. Through dialogic interviews with self-identifying Scottish-Pakistanis and drawing on a Foucauldian concept of policing, this article theorises the extension of disciplinary power as a process of multiple experiences of policing. This includes social policing by members of the public through Islamophobic encounters, and self-policing through individual and community self-inspection, self-surveillance, and self-policing. The article investigates ways that these processes impact their experience of public spaces and shape their sense of belonging within multiple identities (i.e. ethnic, religious, national). This research also looks at ways that Scottish-Pakistanis participate in, respond to, and internalise policing on these multiple levels and the impact of this on their everyday lives.
Abigail Lion Cunningham (Wed,) studied this question.