tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/uk-immigration-48524/articlesUK immigration – The Conversation2024-03-21T09:54:20Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2217982024-03-21T09:54:20Z2024-03-21T09:54:20ZI’ve spent time with refugees in French coastal camps and they told me the government’s Rwanda plan is not putting them off coming to the UK<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582207/original/file-20240315-30-4n1fo5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=188%2C970%2C5326%2C3017&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Refugees in line for food outside a 'wild camp' in Loon Plage in 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Frédérique de Bels</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>I was warned by a French Egyptian not to cross the channel, not to go to the UK and to try to stay in France … But I have not escaped the police brutality from my country, smugglers from Libya, the crossing of the Mediterranean and the ‘jungle’ in France for nothing. I was determined to come to the UK. DM Boss (pseudonym), Egyptian asylum seeker</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is 7am and I’m sitting in Pierre Lascoux’s old van with his dog, Arthur, at my feet. Lascoux, a 60-year-old volunteer, has dedicated the past two years of his life to helping refugees. </p>
<p>Every morning for four weeks we have talked about the <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2023/12/16/in-calais-the-blind-spots-of-the-french-government-s-immigration-bill-are-laid-bare_6350192_7.html">plight of refugees</a> in the Loon Plage camp in Dunkirk’s industrial zone. Lascoux recently finished a 42-day hunger strike in order to raise awareness about the awful living conditions endured by the migrant population at the border. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Man posing with dog and child. Child's faced blurred out so as not to identify them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582601/original/file-20240318-20-fy8o7r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582601/original/file-20240318-20-fy8o7r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=717&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582601/original/file-20240318-20-fy8o7r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=717&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582601/original/file-20240318-20-fy8o7r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=717&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582601/original/file-20240318-20-fy8o7r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582601/original/file-20240318-20-fy8o7r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582601/original/file-20240318-20-fy8o7r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Volunteer Peirre Lascoux, of Salam charity, with dog Arthur helping refugees at Loon Plage camp.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pierre Lascoux</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I volunteered in French refugee camps in Dunkrik and Calais in the summer of 2023. It was part of my fieldwork and research around the concept of “hospitality” at different militarised border zones. </p>
<p>While I was in the camps I witnessed police violence and saw refugees cramming on a boat that was clearly not big enough to take them. I heard guns being fired and moved among the smuggling gangs and mafia in charge of the crossings, hearing stories from people who had been through hell in their own countries and on the journey to France. </p>
<p>Despite the relentless hardships and suffering, one thing appeared to unite them: they wanted to seek sanctuary in the UK. And headline-grabbing policies about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/feb/05/the-tragedy-of-leonard-farruku-the-gifted-young-musician-whose-dream-of-a-better-life-ended-on-the-bibby-stockholm">floating prisons</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/even-many-critics-of-the-rwanda-deportation-policy-are-missing-the-point-of-why-its-wrong-221425">flights to Rwanda</a> were not going to stop them. They had come this far and they were determined to finish their journey.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>This article is part of Conversation Insights</em></strong>
<br><em>The Insights team generates <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">long-form journalism</a> derived from interdisciplinary research. The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.</em></p>
<hr>
<h2>Loon Plage</h2>
<p>Back in Lascoux’s van, we survey the horizon for French riot police, the Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité (CRS), who frequently come early in the morning to dismantle the camp. Faced by a mound of rubbish at the entrance (because the local authorities refuse to provide a skip), Lascoux waits every morning to provide aid to the refugees when they get thrown out. These days, the police dismantle Loon Plage every two weeks and the Calais camps every two days. </p>
<p>Lascoux lets people leave their personal belongings in his van so the cleaning company which accompanies the police doesn’t throw away all their cherished belongings. During the last evacuation the police forcibly removed Lascoux from the camp and illegally confiscated his van. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man is carried away by police." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582604/original/file-20240318-28-zrq5eh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582604/original/file-20240318-28-zrq5eh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582604/original/file-20240318-28-zrq5eh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582604/original/file-20240318-28-zrq5eh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582604/original/file-20240318-28-zrq5eh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1055&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582604/original/file-20240318-28-zrq5eh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1055&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582604/original/file-20240318-28-zrq5eh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1055&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pierre Lascoux being forcibly removed from Loon Plage camp by French police.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pierre Lascoux</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The camp is reminiscent of the infamous <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-the-calais-jungle-is-there-a-long-term-solution-views-from-france-and-britain-67352">Calais Jungle</a>, which was shut down in 2016. I will never forget the image of a group of people, whose boat had capsized, walking back to the camp in the early hours of the morning. One couple pushed a supermarket trolley with two young children who must have been younger than five-years-old and who were drenched and haggard. They must have walked at least a dozen kilometres from the beach where they had probably stayed for days before trying to climb into the rubber dinghy. Everyone there tries several times before being successful and each time they fail they have to trudge back to the camp, exhausted.</p>
<p>Loon Plage is a series of wild camps; they cannot really be called refugee camps. Refugee camps are usually places run by state organisations or charities; places where people can seek sanctuary and, <a href="https://www.unrefugees.org/refugee-facts/camps/#:%7E:text=Food%2C%20water%20access%20points%20and,services%20of%20the%20host%20community">according to</a> the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), refugees have to be provided with shelter, food, water and latrines. </p>
<p>But Loon Plage really is a “jungle”. That’s what the refugees call every wild camp along the north coast. There used to be <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/04/1006481">access to water</a>, which was originally intended for use by the fire service. But because refugees used it to wash, the police blocked it. As a result, a 22-year-old <a href="https://www.lavoixdunord.fr/1215355/article/2022-08-10/loon-plage-un-migrant-meurt-noye-dans-un-canal">Sudanese man died</a> in 2022 while trying to wash in the canal which runs adjacent to the camp. In Calais, it is not uncommon to see 1,000 litre water tanks distributed by charities like <a href="https://calaisfood.wixsite.com/home/">Calais Food Collective</a> being stabbed by the police forces or disappearing overnight. According to Rachel Read, a volunteer for Calais Food Collective: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It does not matter how hostile the state tried to make it here, they are not going to stop coming. If anything they are going to keep coming more because France is such a hostile place that they try to move through it and out.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Lascoux works for <a href="https://www.associationsalam.org/">Salam</a>, a refugee charity which was established after the arrival of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/may/23/immigration.immigrationandpublicservices1">first Kosovar refugees</a> in the 1990s. Salam recently succeeded in obtaining a water point and a skip for the Loon Plage camp following Lascoux’s <a href="https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/occitanie/tarn/albi/40-jours-sans-manger-pour-aider-les-migrants-l-ancien-boulanger-du-sud-de-la-france-obtient-gain-de-cause-2899565.html">hunger strike</a>, which ended with his hospitalisation. Lascoux is currently regaining his strength. The last time we spoke he told me: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is a small victory but the fight must go on. It is intolerable to see human beings treated worse than animals in France in the 21st century.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>‘Stop the boats’</h2>
<p>I have been interested in the <a href="https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/98681/3/Mathieu%20Pernot%20and%20Les%20Migrants-%20Voicing%20the%20Silence%20and%20Exposing%20French%20Neo-colonial%20History%20and%20Practices..pdf">representation of migration</a> for several years, and I had already been to Calais with Franco-Swiss <a href="https://www.centrephotogeneve.ch/en/artist/elisa-larvego/">photographer Elisa Larvego</a> in January 2023 researching <a href="https://player.sheffield.ac.uk/exhibits/calais-and-out-focus">alternative representations of migration</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Barbed wire fencing surrounding coastal refugee camp." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583138/original/file-20240320-28-cw6l8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583138/original/file-20240320-28-cw6l8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583138/original/file-20240320-28-cw6l8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583138/original/file-20240320-28-cw6l8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583138/original/file-20240320-28-cw6l8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583138/original/file-20240320-28-cw6l8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583138/original/file-20240320-28-cw6l8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Video still from ‘The Going Towards’ by Elisa Larvego, 2023. Images shows the end of the harbour that has been ‘protected’ from the refugees trying to reach the lorries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.centrephotogeneve.ch/en/artist/elisa-larvego/">Elisa Larvego</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I use the term “refugee” instead of the negative term of “migrant” because on the camps there are <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/uk/news/stories/unhcr-viewpoint-refugee-or-migrant-which-right">both categories</a>. But the people I met all sought refuge from desperate circumstances and should all be deserving of protection.</p>
<p>I wanted to see what was happening with my own eyes and speak with both volunteers and refugees: to hear their stories directly and gain a better understanding of these highly contentious border areas – all of which are linked to the highly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/29/uk-france-small-boats-pact-doubling-drownings-directly-linked">politicised migration argument</a> between France and the UK.</p>
<p>According to the UK government, in the year ending September 2023, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/irregular-migration-to-the-uk-year-ending-september-2023/irregular-migration-to-the-uk-year-ending-september-2023#:%7E:text=In%20the%20year%20ending%20September%202023%20there%20were%2037%2C556%20people,as%20shown%20in%20Figure%202">37,556 people arrived in the UK</a> in small boats which sailed from the northern coast of France. (There were 44,490 in 2022.)</p>
<p>According to Lascoux, in summer 2023, the population of Loon Plage fluctuated from around 300 in June to 2,000 in August, depending on appropriate weather conditions for attempting a crossing. These numbers were based on the number of meals that were distributed by Salam each day and Lascoux’s knowledge of the camp.</p>
<p>Since February 2003 and the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/273239/6604.pdf">Touquet agreement</a>, the French and British governments have operated <a href="https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2023/04/06/the-uks-juxtaposed-border-controls/">juxtaposed border controls</a>. In return for financial compensation, France agreed to take charge of border surveillance and the regulation of illegal migration flows. Then, 20 years later, at the 36th bilateral Franco-British summit in March 2023, the UK pledged <a href="https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/hauts-de-france/pas-calais/calais/traversees-de-la-manche-londres-investit-541-millions-d-euros-pour-securiser-la-frontiere-2730574.html">€541 million</a> (around £460 million) to France over three years to curb illegal crossings into the UK – to stop the boats.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/letzWz7_Jqo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>But it is not working. What I witnessed during my stay on the camps is that securing the borders does not prevent people from crossing – everyone crosses, it is just a matter of time. </p>
<p>Rather than stopping the boats the policy, which has seen the French police enforce “<a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/10/07/enforced-misery/degrading-treatment-migrant-children-and-adults-northern-france">zero-fixation points</a>” to prevent refugees settling anywhere, has simply led to an increase in violence by the authorities. This, in turn, has made crossing <a href="https://alarmphone.org/en/2024/01/28/the-deadly-consequences-of-the-new-deal-to-stop-the-boats/?post_type_release_type=post">more costly, violent and dangerous</a>. But violence and danger were just a daily reality inside the camps, as I was to learn. </p>
<h2>Smugglers run the camps</h2>
<p>I soon realised that the Loon Plage was run by <a href="https://www.lavoixdunord.fr/1379909/article/2023-10-01/grande-synthe-ils-partent-en-prison-pour-une-quarantaine-de-passages-illegaux-en">Iraqi-Kurdish smugglers</a>, who have also infiltrated the town of <a href="https://webdoc.france24.com/france-first-humanitarian-camp-grande-synthe/">Grande Synthe</a> and have a monopoly on boat crossings on this part of the <a href="https://www.visitpasdecalais.com/">Pas de Calais</a> coast.</p>
<p>The mafia-like organisation they belong to is structured and runs quite smoothly. Permanent “staff” run the “shops”, maintain the camp and feed the refugees who have paid for an “all-inclusive” passage. These “permanents” are people who have decided to remain in the region to control who comes and goes. The shops are small stalls at the entrance of the camp where food and cigarettes are sold. Some people, whose families have sold everything or who have more financial means, will manage to pay for the whole journey from their country of origin to the UK. This category of people do not usually stay long in camps because their journey has already been negotiated and paid for from the outset.</p>
<p>The shops are sometimes used as payment points and also act as relays for <em>les petites mains</em>, or “little hands”, the ever-changing mafia workforce. The little hands include recruiters who generally work between Calais and Grande-Synthe to recruit refugees who have arrived alone and who want to make the crossing and the “organisers” who accompany each convoy of refugees on the beach on the night of the crossing and who stay with them while waiting for the boats.</p>
<p>I learned from my interviews that the smuggling network has many recruiters working from other towns and countries in Africa and in the Middle East. They also recruit refugees to pilot the boats. It is hard to find boat pilots, so at times they get paid in addition to getting a free crossing.</p>
<h2>The permanents</h2>
<p>So during our morning visits to the camp, Lascoux and I would talk to the permanents. They are exclusively men. When women are present they are often part of a family and they only transit via the camp – they never stay. The camp can be especially brutal for women travelling alone, so associations like <a href="https://www.dunkirkrefugeewomenscentre.com/">Refugee Women Centre</a> try to relocate them to refuge houses where they are safer like at the <a href="https://maisonsesame.org/">Maison Sésame</a> in the town of Hezeele, northern France. </p>
<p>In a supermarket trolley, which they normally use to transport belongings, the shop owners set up a wood fire and two large black cast-iron kettles and heat the water for the coffee on a blackened grate. The pungent smell from the fire is due to the hydro-alcoholic gel and plastic crates they use for fuel. They ask if we want to join them for a coffee. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582208/original/file-20240315-18-ma9m6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582208/original/file-20240315-18-ma9m6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582208/original/file-20240315-18-ma9m6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582208/original/file-20240315-18-ma9m6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582208/original/file-20240315-18-ma9m6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582208/original/file-20240315-18-ma9m6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582208/original/file-20240315-18-ma9m6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Camp coffee with the ‘permanents’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sophie Watt</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These men would often come and ask me to eat with them or join them for mugs of tea. It seems nice, but it is also to check out who I am and to figure out what I’m doing there. The shop “owners” and the little hands are suspicious of everyone. </p>
<p>Human trafficking brings in huge sums of money for smugglers operating out of Paris, London and even Baghdad. But the fact that I’m volunteering for Salam to distribute meals quells some of their suspicions. As does the fact that I’m with Lascoux, who regularly brings wood, tents, blankets and clothes.</p>
<h2>The crossings</h2>
<p>There is little freedom in the camp and each refugee is attached to a recruiter, who works for one or two smugglers. The traffickers have claimed different parts of the beaches along the coast and compete with each other in order to gain more custom. Once the refugees have paid their passage (between €800 and €4,500, depending on their nationality), the smuggler allocates them a convoy “team” which often waits in the woods near the beach for several days before attempting to cross. Kevin, from Guinea, who tried to cross while I was there and whom I interviewed both in Calais and when he arrived in the UK, told me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There were 55 people in my convoy and in the forest there were more than 250 people who waited for four days because there were five smugglers who had their group. In our group, there were women and children too, and we had nothing to eat for four days. It was raining, the weather was bad and the waves were rough. One of the boats overturned on departure.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Many families and children transit via Loon Plage rather than Calais, where conditions are even more harsh due to more frequent police evacuations. DM Boss said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I tried three times to cross but only paid once. Each time we were waiting in the woods for hours and even days before the crossing.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>At each stage, the refugees are surrounded by the little hands, different teams for different places, who keep an eye on them and tell them what to do. The convoys are also infiltrated by the gangs to ensure that the refugees are not working for the police or informing journalists. </p>
<p>As in Loon Plage, the convoys mix nationalities and therefore prices. Sub-Saharan Africans pay less (between €800 and €1,200) than the Vietnamese or Albanians, who can pay up to €4,500 and who have arrived in the north of France as part of their own smuggling networks. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582209/original/file-20240315-16-s9emcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582209/original/file-20240315-16-s9emcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582209/original/file-20240315-16-s9emcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582209/original/file-20240315-16-s9emcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582209/original/file-20240315-16-s9emcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582209/original/file-20240315-16-s9emcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582209/original/file-20240315-16-s9emcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A young refugee walking with all his belongings in a shopping trolley.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sophie Watt</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are few sub-Saharan Africans at Loon Plage and they are often recruited as the boat pilots or as recruiters, as this pays for the crossing. Making sure that a group of sub-Saharan Africans gets on board, despite the fact that they can usually only afford minimum price, allows the pilot to remain unidentified once in Dover. The pilot is often therefore a refugee who did not have any other means to pay for the crossing and who has very limited experience in steering boats.</p>
<p>This network of people trafficking can only exist and be extremely lucrative because the French and the British governments have not agreed to establish safe passages between France and the UK and are determined to invest in “securing” the border instead.</p>
<h2>The sound of gunfire</h2>
<p>It was difficult to get close to refugees in the camp because being seen talking to me could put them at risk. A few of the interviews I undertook with refugees I met in the camp took place in the UK once they had crossed. </p>
<p>Each talked about the <a href="https://www.liberation.fr/societe/flambee-de-violences-a-loon-plage-des-migrants-a-la-merci-des-reseaux-20220916_L2TWS6SD35BUNHXFWL7X27N6OM/">violence</a> at night and the fact that the Kurdish mafia is heavily armed. While on the camp I heard gunshots several times and was told they were “just shooting rats”. DM Boss, who stayed at Loon Plage for two months, confessed:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I could not sleep in the tent at night, I had to get out and wait in the woods because in the evenings once the NGOs and charities are gone the smugglers and little hands talk and argue and get their guns out; so I used to wait until they went to sleep.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In May 2022, two Iraqi men <a href="https://www.lavoixdunord.fr/1184033/article/2022-05-24/grande-synthe-un-homme-tue-par-balle-et-un-autre-blesse-pres-d-un-camp-de">were shot</a> in the camp and one died from his wounds. In February 2023 another Iraqi man <a href="https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/hauts-de-france/nord-0/dunkerque/un-blesse-grave-par-balle-dans-le-camp-de-migrants-de-loon-plage-2713962.html">was shot</a> and seriously injured. Many more incidents go unreported. </p>
<p>The Kurdish network is renowned for its efficacy, but due to the increasing police presence on the beaches, they are starting to take more risks. The coordinator of the charity Utopia 56 Grande Synthe, Fabien Touchard, explained that police violence has gradually moved from the camp to the beaches at night because it is harder for the associations (mainly <a href="https://utopia56.org/grande-synthe-3/">Utopia 56</a> and <a href="https://www.helloasso.com/associations/osmose-62">Osmose 62</a>) to witness everything that happens along the coast as far as Belgium. </p>
<p>Smugglers are taking risks with the lives of refugees, by forcing them in ever more dangerous numbers on to boats which cannot handle them in order to escape the French police. In fact, in the year ending September 2023, there was <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/irregular-migration-to-the-uk-year-ending-september-2023/irregular-migration-to-the-uk-year-ending-september-2023">an average of</a> 48 people per small boat, which was higher than the previous year (37) and much higher than earlier years – in 2020 there were 13 per small boat, in 2019 11 and in 2018 the number was seven.</p>
<p>The boat crossings have become better organised, as risk levels have increased. For example, <a href="https://wedodata.fr/productions/lesjours-morts-calais/">397 refugees</a> have died since 1999 trying to cross the Franco-British border. And in one single incident on November 24, 2021, <a href="https://www.lepoint.fr/societe/calais-5-migrants-meurent-dans-un-naufrage-darmanin-sur-place-24-11-2021-2453649_23.php#11">27 refugees drowned</a>. Just after I left Calais, on August 12, <a href="https://www.nordlittoral.fr/182172/article/2023-08-13/six-nouveaux-morts-en-mer-et-des-disparus-au-large-de-calais-retour-sur-la">six people died</a> at sea, while on January 14 2024 <a href="https://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/deaths-at-the-calais-border/">four Syrian refugees</a> (two young men and two children) were killed attempting a crossing.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582210/original/file-20240315-30-ebnnj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582210/original/file-20240315-30-ebnnj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582210/original/file-20240315-30-ebnnj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582210/original/file-20240315-30-ebnnj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582210/original/file-20240315-30-ebnnj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582210/original/file-20240315-30-ebnnj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582210/original/file-20240315-30-ebnnj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Graffiti in Loon Plage, near the railway line.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sophie Watt</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The most recent victim is a seven-year-old girl, named Roula, <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/they-dont-see-us-as-humans-familys-anger-at-people-smugglers-after-daughter-dies-in-boat-tragedy-13089652">who died</a> while crossing the Channel with her pregnant mother, father and her three siblings.</p>
<p>More frequent boat crossings began in 2018 after a few successful attempts were made in 2017 following the dismantlement of the Calais Jungle in 2016. They gradually replaced the crossings in lorries which had become too dangerous and almost impossible due to new technology employed by border police.</p>
<h2>Night patrols and ‘taxi boats’</h2>
<p>I patrolled the coast around Boulogne-Sur-Mer at night with <a href="https://www.facebook.com/p/Association-Osmose62-100085195519283/">Osmose 62</a>. Charity founders and volunteers Dany Patous and Olivier Moctar Barbès patrol the coast most nights before going to work. They explained how the smugglers were changing their techniques to adjust to the increased policing. The latest technique is called “taxi boat”. </p>
<p>Instead of awaiting pick-up on the beach, refugees are told to wait in the water at different locations along the coast to stop the police from chasing them. The boats then pick up the groups at sea the same night, and end up cramming in more people and taking longer, more perilous routes to Dover.</p>
<p>The night patrols, or <em>marauds</em>, are surreal. Walking through a ghost town at night, along small roads, along the coast, as well as car parks near beaches; being on the lookout for any signs of refugees and on constant alert for the police.</p>
<p>For me it was high in adrenaline and emotion because the objective was to help refugees who had failed to cross, while at the same time making sure not to reveal their presence to the authorities.</p>
<p>Before I arrived at the rendezvous point at 4am I saw a big group of refugees roaming the streets of Boulogne and I told Barbès. It was then impossible to find them again. Barbès said: “They have learned the art of making themselves invisible because of the chase with the police forces.” After patrolling the town, we drove along the coast and stopped at different beaches where we met a group of French police. They asked us for ID and told us that they were looking for a large group that was hiding in the nearby woods.</p>
<p>That night, we stopped for a group of young Syrian men who needed hot drinks and food before going back to Calais on foot. </p>
<p>Later, we watched as 40 people crammed on a small inflatable zodiac boat leaving the coast in the early hours of the morning at around 6am. We arrived just after the boat had left but the police officers present, who had not bothered chasing them, told us that the departure had been chaotic with women and children shouting. The boat had a problem with the motor and was progressing slowly in circles. It looked so flimsy and so small and was taking so long to reach the open sea that one of the police officers said that they would never make it. </p>
<p>This boat was later rescued by the coastguard because it had started sinking. They did not reach British waters this time. According to the refugees I interviewed and some volunteers, departures are extremely traumatic, because they are all fighting to get on board as quickly as possible when there is not enough space to accommodate everyone. Marie, from <a href="https://www.osrefugeeaidteam.org/projects/refugee-womens-centre-rwc/">Refugee Women Center</a>, said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is not uncommon for the little hands to throw women overboard when the boat is too crowded. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>And DM Boss told me: “I retrieved a little boy by the leg while he was being stepped on by people jumping on board.”</p>
<p>When I was in Calais I met a Sudanese refugee, a professor in political science at the University of Khartoum, with his nine-month-old baby. They had been separated from the baby’s mother and the couple’s two other children while trying to get on board a boat. He was caught by the police and had been prevented from crossing with the rest of his family. He has been staying in a refuge house ever since and has tried to cross with his baby dozens of times with no success, while his wife and other two boys are near London. </p>
<h2>The many jungles of Calais</h2>
<p>Many refugees travel between Calais and Loon Plage in order to negotiate their crossing. In Calais I interviewed around 20 volunteers and refugees in safe places but I could only interview one refugee away from the camp in Grande-Synthe and a few others in my car. </p>
<p>Since the dismantling of the big jungle, the mayor of Calais, Natasha Bouchard, has tried everything to deter refugees from arriving in the region to the extent that she managed to obtain the right to <a href="https://www.infomigrants.net/fr/post/34530/calais--larrete-interdisant-la-distribution-de-repas-aux-migrants-de-nouveau-reconduit">forbid food and water distribution</a> in September 2020. Partly because of this more arduous environment, the “jungles” in Calais are smaller and usually populated by younger men and teenagers. </p>
<p>The camps are grouped by nationality, which means that the tensions are not always as high as in Loon Plage. I informally talked with a few Afghan people who had to leave Afghanistan because they had been working for the British and American forces as translators and saw their lives put at risk after the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/10/thousands-of-afghans-who-helped-british-forces-remain-stranded-by-uk">recent withdrawal</a> of the British forces in the region.</p>
<p>I managed to interview five people from Guinea, Chad, Iran and Sudan and found a smaller camp of Francophone Africans within the Sudanese camp who did not want to be interviewed but who were proud to show me their survival skills. They were cooking when I arrived and although their tents were deep in mud they had managed to build a common area for eating with a roof made of wood and recycled tent material. </p>
<p>Most of these young men, aged between 15 and 25, had been through Ceuta or Melilla together (Spanish enclaves in Morocco) where the living conditions were even more dangerous and precarious than on the French northern border and they were talking about their journey through Morocco like they were war veterans. They had managed to climb over the three six-metre high border fences despite being wounded and under attack from both the Moroccan and Spanish police forces. They were proud and felt invincible and spoke like an army of child soldiers ready to conquer the world. </p>
<h2>Kevin’s journey</h2>
<p>Kevin, who is from Nzérékoré, a city in Guinea’s south-eastern forest region, took me to his camp after our first interview in my car. He was proud to show me that they had built a “Francophone corner” within the Sudanese camp. He introduced me to all his friends one by one who shook my hand and asked me if I wanted to stay and eat with them. They were all from different parts of West Africa – Burkina-Faso, Cameroon, Guinea, Ivory Coast – and they were proud of their journey, but were tired of staying in Calais where they had been for several months. Kevin said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I managed to climb the three walls in Ceuta with a broken hand after seven years on the road and in the desert going through Mali, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco. I should have stayed in Spain but I needed to try for the UK. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Kevin said he came from a beautiful country, though from a <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2020/09/25/they-let-people-kill-each-other/violence-nzerekore-during-guineas-constitutional">persecuted ethnic group</a>; he is from the Guerzé tribe. He told me he “had to eat stale bread and cheap jam and live in a mud bath in the north of France while France was exploiting natural resources in his country”. And yet because his country is not at war, despite the most recent <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/least-two-killed-guinea-anti-junta-protests-eve-coup-anniversary-2023-09-05/">military coups</a>, it was difficult for him to make a case for political asylum in France.</p>
<p>When I first spoke to him, Kevin and his “crew” had just survived another eviction. They had managed to hide their belongings along the railway tracks within the Sudanese camp. Kevin remembers suffering from the effects of “tear gas that had been launched inside the tent” a few weeks earlier. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was asleep when they sprayed tear gas inside the tent and my lungs burnt for hours afterwards. I could not use the covers I had because of the smell. This smell is impossible to get rid off so I had to find another blanket.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The mayor’s policy since 2008 is <a href="https://www.revolutionpermanente.fr/Calais-la-mairie-depose-des-rochers-sur-les-quais-pour-empecher-les-refugies-de-s-installer">ruthless and relentless</a>: evacuated every two days and chased from any public spaces, the refugees are mentally and physically exhausted.</p>
<p>“We try crossing by trucks or by boats every night so during the day we sleep but the police usually come and force you out of your tent. You have to be quick and get all your papers with you otherwise everything is destroyed. It is scary”, said Kevin. </p>
<p>Mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, refugees in Calais often don’t have the financial means to pay for a crossing with the Kurdish mafia and thus access the Calais network of smugglers who are mostly Sudanese and North-African and who are less organised and less reliable because they use cheaper, poor quality boats and motors. Kevin told me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This network is a lot less safe than the Kurdish one and if you fail the crossing they often keep your money.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Kevin negotiated his passage from €1,200 to €800 with Kurdish smugglers. It took him four months to make the money he needed because he told me: “I could not work as recruiter for them because all my friends are poor, they could not pay the crossing, so I had to do small jobs to save that money.” Kevin finally crossed in August 2023 with a convoy of people which left from the beach called Graveline. They had to wait for four days before setting off.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The weather was horrendous, the wind was very strong and another boat capsized under my eyes. I am still scarred from the crossing, the sea was so dangerous, I don’t think I will ever go back on a boat in my life. Everyone was shouting and crying especially the women and the children who were terrified because of the waves. Somebody wanted to jump and we had to stop him and someone else fell in the water, we just had time to catch him and drag him back on the boat. I stayed at the front of the boat with my friend and a lot of us wanted to go back, we were terrified. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Brutal evacuations</h2>
<p>Every evacuation is brutal and dehumanises the refugees a little more. Apparently, the process of dehumanisation justifies <a href="https://basta.media/controle-aux-frontieres-migrants-exiles-Calais-Briancon-couts-de-la-repression-bunkerisation-militarisation-Darmanin">the costly</a> daily harassment of refugees that was heavily criticised by the <a href="https://www.defenseurdesdroits.fr/sites/default/files/2023-10/ddd_rapport_droits-fondamentaux-etrangers_3ans-apres-calais_synthese_20181207.pdf">UN Special Rapporters in 2018</a>.</p>
<p>When I was in Loon Plage, the camp had not been evacuated for a month. One morning, I witnessed the camp evacuating itself because people could not stand the anticipation of the police forces coming to dismantle the camp. I arrived at 7am only to see a long line of people pushing supermarket trolleys full of their belongings to another part of the industrial zone along the canal.</p>
<p>They had internalised the process so much that it was just easier to “self-evacuate” instead of living with the anxiety of the police arriving in the early hours of the morning. When I asked one refugee why he was moving everything he said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I cannot stand it anymore. I am too tired, every morning I think they are going to come and they don’t come. I am moving so I can sleep better.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The evacuations are performative in the sense they fulfil the role the French government plays in order to justify the sums of money being <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/11/europe/uk-france-illegal-immigration-funding-intl-hnk/index.html">paid by the UK government</a> to secure the border – despite the fact most refugees come back to the exact same settlements after the evacuation and will cross eventually.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2023/12/20/what-s-in-france-s-controversial-immigration-law_6361995_7.html">new anti-immigration law</a> passed by the French parliament on December 19 2023 will do little to ease the climate of suspicion and fear which surrounds the refugee debate in both the UK and France. </p>
<p>But nobody I spoke to would be deterred; not by the brutal camp evacuations; the fear of smuggling gangs, the terror of the crossings, or even the <a href="https://theconversation.com/rwanda-asylum-deportation-plan-faces-more-delays-how-did-we-get-here-226209">promise of a flight to Rwanda</a> once landing in the UK. If anything, the violence and lack of hospitality at the French border which represent unprecedented breaches
of fundamental rights of refugees further motivates people to cross. As DM Boss told me: “I could not live in the jungle any longer, I was determined to come to the UK. I had to try.”</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>For you: more from our <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Insights series</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/gp-crisis-how-did-things-go-so-wrong-and-what-needs-to-change-208197?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">GP crisis: how did things go so wrong, and what needs to change?</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/would-better-buildings-help-fix-the-nhs-the-story-of-britains-hospitals-from-grand-designs-to-counting-the-costs-208090?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Would better buildings help fix the NHS? The story of Britain’s hospitals, from grand designs to counting the costs</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/its-like-being-in-a-warzone-aande-nurses-open-up-about-the-emotional-cost-of-working-on-the-nhs-frontline-194197?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">‘It’s like being in a warzone’ – A&E nurses open up about the emotional cost of working on the NHS frontline</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/insomnia-how-chronic-sleep-problems-can-lead-to-a-spiralling-decline-in-mental-health-224131?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Insomnia: how chronic sleep problems can lead to a spiralling decline in mental health
</a></em></p></li>
</ul>
<p><em>To hear about new Insights articles, join the hundreds of thousands of people who value The Conversation’s evidence-based news. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/the-daily-newsletter-2?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK"><strong>Subscribe to our newsletter</strong></a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221798/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sophie Watt receives funding from the BA Leverhulme Small Grants and HEIF from the University fo Sheffield.</span></em></p>Despite the relentless hardships and suffering, one thing appeared to unite the refugees I met: they wanted to seek sanctuary in the UK, no matter what.Sophie Watt, Lecturer, School of Languages and Cultures, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2236982024-03-18T17:08:03Z2024-03-18T17:08:03ZThe UK government is using private tech companies to deliver public funds to asylum seekers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580124/original/file-20240306-26-4saaqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Asylum seekers are brought ashore after being rescued at sea by Border Force in Dover, Kent, in September 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/dover-kent-uk-22nd-september-2022-2205152061">Sean Aidan Calderbank|Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-counts-as-a-refugee-four-questions-to-understand-current-migration-debates-219735">asylum seekers</a> arrive in the UK, they are not eligible for benefits. Those who do not have anywhere else to live are provided with government-funded housing. Those who are not able to <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64edefc56bc96d000d4ed1ef/Assessing_destitution.pdf">meet essential needs</a> can access basic Home Office funds to cover food, clothing and toiletries. </p>
<p>The sums in question are paltry. As of December 2023, asylum seekers housed in self-catering facilities are given <a href="https://www.gov.uk/asylum-support/what-youll-get">£49.18</a> per week, per person. Those housed in hotels get £8.86. </p>
<p>Private tech companies are increasingly encroaching on the delivery of public funds to vulnerable people. These are distributed via a prepayment system called the Asylum Support Enablement (Aspen) card, provided by Prepaid Financial Services (PFS, a subsidiary of EML Payments Ltd).</p>
<p>This is the same technology used by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ refugee cash assistance programme in Greece. Research there has shown that it restricts asylum seekers’ mobility and constrains <a href="https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/26694/1/IPS-Tazzioli.pdf">what they can purchase</a>. </p>
<p>We have found similar patterns in the UK. Our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369183X.2024.2312249">recent study</a> shows this technology isolates asylum seekers from networks of financial support, compounding their already precarious financial situation. It also restricts their consumption habits, and enables the government to collect their personal purchasing data. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protestors hold up posters." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580123/original/file-20240306-20-jly07k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580123/original/file-20240306-20-jly07k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580123/original/file-20240306-20-jly07k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580123/original/file-20240306-20-jly07k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580123/original/file-20240306-20-jly07k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580123/original/file-20240306-20-jly07k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580123/original/file-20240306-20-jly07k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Restrictive payment systems are part of how the hostile environment is created.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/morton-halllincolnshireuk-january-20th-2018-eighty-1277329108">Ian Francis|Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A restrictive system</h2>
<p>Over the spring and summer of 2021, we analysed policy papers, legal reports, web pages and <a href="https://privacyinternational.org/advocacy/4788/uk-home-office-finally-responds-our-questions-about-surveillance-aspen-card-users">government Freedom of Information Act correspondence</a> related to the Aspen card.</p>
<p>We also undertook qualitative interviews and focus groups with 21 participants (all anonymised in our paper, and all based in <a href="https://migrationscotland.org.uk/policyarea/asylum-dispersal/">Glasgow</a>). These included asylum seekers who were Aspen cardholders, refugees who had used such cards in the past, and NGO staff who supported asylum seekers. We also interviewed staff at PFS.</p>
<p>As a funds management system, the Aspen card is highly restrictive. You can only use it to buy <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a8bf2a9e5274a2e87dc4057/section-4_1_-handling-transitional-cases-v1.0ext.pdf">food and other essential items</a>, mainly from the supermarkets that will accept it. Only asylum seekers whose asylum application is pending can use it to withdraw cash.</p>
<p>The card cannot be used for internet shopping. At the time of our study in 2021, it could be used for contactless payments, but that is no longer the case. Friends or family cannot add money to it and you cannot transfer money to other accounts from it. </p>
<p>Our interviewees told us it often does not work in independent shops including charity shops, cheap clothing stores, halal butchers and African food stores. As a result, they said that in Glasgow, asylum seekers often struggle to buy the warm clothing needed to manage the cold Scottish climate. They also find it difficult to access foods that suit their cultural and religious needs. </p>
<p>The Aspen card is fluorescent orange, which makes its users highly visible in public spaces – potentially exposing them to abuse. Further, in enabling the surveillance of people’s purchasing habits, the card breaches asylum seekers’ right to privacy. Our interviewees told us it makes them afraid of how their patterns of consumption might affect their right to asylum. </p>
<h2>A highly unreliable system</h2>
<p>Above all, the card often does not work. Our interviewees told us about people suddenly being left unable to withdraw money, sometimes for months at a time. As one asylum seeker explained: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The first time it happened, I went to the machine on Monday to withdraw the money, and it was telling me I had £70-something in there – but zero balance to withdraw. And I was like … I just got here, I’ve not even used the card! How is it possible that I don’t have any money to withdraw?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Home Office has contracted organisations including the charity Migrant Help and housing management company Mears to support asylum seekers with such problems. However, more often that not, they are being left to deal with these issues alone. Another asylum seeker explained: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>For close to eight months, I was not receiving the complete money. But I don’t have anywhere to go, because even if you call Migrant Help or you phone Mears or the Home Office, they will not give a response to you. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Of the 16 asylum seekers we spoke with, 13 had experienced a malfunctioning card, as had their friends. The stress of relying on such an unpredictable system only compounds the extremely low level of support these people have access to in the first place.</p>
<p>At the time of our research in 2021, the UK government was giving asylum seekers around £35 per week, per person. While this has since <a href="https://www.gov.uk/asylum-support/what-youll-get">increased to £49.18</a>, such severely limited funds make it practically impossible for people to fully cover their needs, let alone save any money. </p>
<p>When a card stops working, asylum seekers are left completely destitute. Mothers are unable to buy food, nappies or toiletries. One person with a young toddler was left for five weeks without income. When their housing officer eventually told them that emergency support would be granted, they were given just over an hour to collect it. </p>
<p>When questioned about these findings, Mears referred The Conversation to the Home Office. A spokesperson for Migrant Help said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In instances of challenges with Aspen cards, we facilitate raising the issue to the attention of the payment provider, and strive to offer guidance and assistance. However, it’s crucial to note that we can’t resolve issues of this nature, as that is the responsibility of the payment provider contracted by the Home Office.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A Home Office spokesperson said: “We take the welfare of all asylum seekers very seriously, which is why we provide a weekly allowance to those who would otherwise be destitute through our Aspen card system. There are no restrictions on asylum seekers using the monetary provision to make purchases from retail outlets or withdraw cash from an ATM to buy food.”</p>
<p>The government says it records people’s use of the Aspen card, and may investigate if there are safeguarding concerns or potential breaches of the conditions of support to which the recipients have agreed (to prevent fraud). </p>
<p>Despite this, many of the interviewees we spoke with were unaware of the terms and conditions applicable to use of this card. Furthermore, precisely because they are destitute, asylum seekers have no choice but to accept whatever terms and conditions those might be. </p>
<h2>A tool of surveillance and control</h2>
<p>Prior to contracting PFS, the Home Office had reportedly <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/digitaliberties/big-brother-says-no-surveillance-and-income-management-of-asylum-seekers-through-the-uk-aspen-card/">spent around £84 million</a> on the previous card system, supplied by Sodexo. We estimate that between January <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-office-spending-over-25000-2020">2020</a> and December <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-office-spending-over-25000-2021">2021</a>, it then spent over £198 million on the PFS system. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-office-spending-over-25000-2020">Home Office spending data</a> shows most of this expenditure was attributed to an item labelled “cash support”. Although not explicitly stated, this is likely to refer to the emergency cash support given to asylum seekers when their Aspen card is not working. The documents show that instances of this charge spiked following the contract handover to PFS, which saw <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jun/02/thousands-of-asylum-seekers-go-hungry-after-cash-card-problems">thousands of asylum seekers</a> left without financial support.</p>
<p>This is concerning, not least because PFS is a preferred supplier for prepaid cards across UK government departments until at least 2025. PFS currently has <a href="https://prepaidfinancialservices.com/en/councils">agreements with</a> around 121 local councils and NHS clinical commissioning groups. It also has an agreement with <a href="https://www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/agreements/RM6248">Crown Commercial Services</a> – the largest <a href="https://www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/about-ccs">public procurement organisation</a> in the UK. (EML Payments Ltd was approached for comment regarding PFS, its subsidiary, but did not respond.)</p>
<p>Through its collection of purchasing data and constraining rules, the Aspen card serves as a tool of surveillance and control – a means through which the UK government’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/hostile-environment-the-uk-governments-draconian-immigration-policy-explained-95460">“hostile environment”</a> is potentially achieved. This raises questions about the role of financial technology companies in shaping punitive digital welfare practices across the UK.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223698/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sophie Bennani-Taylor receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nasar Meer receives funding from the British Academy, UKRI, ESRC, RSE and JPI Urban Europe. </span></em></p>Private tech companies are increasingly being used to delivery public funds to vulnerable people – and facilitate the government’s hostile environment policies.Sophie Bennani-Taylor, Doctoral Researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of OxfordNasar Meer, Professor in Social and Political Sciences, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2241902024-03-01T13:43:12Z2024-03-01T13:43:12ZStopping migrant care workers bringing their families will have a devastating effect on the UK’s already struggling care sector<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578876/original/file-20240229-26-sya6oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/nurse-making-notes-during-home-visit-128133443">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The home secretary, James Cleverly, has reiterated the UK government’s plan to stop overseas care workers bringing dependants to the UK. Taking to X (formerly Twitter) on February 19, he <a href="https://twitter.com/JamesCleverly/status/1759597950353752091">wrote</a>: “Today in Parliament we have laid out an order to ban overseas care workers from bringing dependants. This is just one part of our plan to deliver the biggest-ever cut in migration.” </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1759597950353752091"}"></div></p>
<p>This follows the strategy Cleverly <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/home-secretary-unveils-plan-to-cut-net-migration#:%7E:text=My%20plan%20will%20deliver%20the,take%20advantage%20of%20our%20hospitality.">announced</a> in <a href="https://theconversation.com/through-its-immigration-policies-the-uk-government-decides-whose-families-are-legitimate-219641">December 2023</a> to restrict the use of the health and care worker visa. The UK government’s stated aim is to cut net annual migration by 300,000 people. </p>
<p>But the government’s plan belies how <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/23246/documents/171671/default/">dramatic</a> the situation facing the wider care sector is. In 2022-23, <a href="https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/performance-tracker-2023/adult-social-care">one in ten posts</a> in the adult social care workforce in England were vacant. In the aftermath of the pandemic, the British government admitted more migrant care workers than ever, largely to fill this gap in the workforce.</p>
<p>Care work is extremely taxing, emotionally and physically. And it is <a href="https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/care-worker">poorly paid</a>. I should know: before becoming an academic, I was one of the over <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/461993/health-and-social-care-employment-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/">3 million</a> low-paid workers in the UK’s complex care industry. </p>
<p>And for migrant workers, the challenges of the job are compounded by an increasingly hostile immigration system. My research <a href="https://www.statewatch.org/media/documents/news/2019/mar/uk-dk-se-reimagining-refugee-rights-asylum-harms-3-19.pdf">shows</a> that being separated from family causes serious relational and emotional harms. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A carer and an elderly lady." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578877/original/file-20240229-24-7ibytw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578877/original/file-20240229-24-7ibytw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578877/original/file-20240229-24-7ibytw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578877/original/file-20240229-24-7ibytw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578877/original/file-20240229-24-7ibytw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578877/original/file-20240229-24-7ibytw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578877/original/file-20240229-24-7ibytw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Carers provide an invaluable service.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/portrait-happy-female-caregiver-senior-woman-423588148">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Restricting migrant workers’ rights</h2>
<p>Psychologists and lawyers I have interviewed <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0306396819850986">highlight</a> how distressing it is for people to be separated from their families. It can affect their ability to move forward with their lives, and leads to financial, mental and <a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/policybristol/policy-briefings/kept-apart-immigration-system-needs-reform-to-stop-traumatic-separation-of-families-and-couples/#:%7E:text=Key%20findings&text=For%20participants%20and%20their%20children,financial%2C%20mental%20and%20physical%20hardship.&text=Enforced%20single%20parents%20struggled%20with,%2C%20and%20supporting%20two%20households">even physical hardship</a>. </p>
<p>So, the government’s plan will make being a migrant carer significantly harder. Care work involves long hours treating illness, facing deaths and undertaking nightshifts. When I worked as a carer, the shifts I was given were generally 12 hours long. The job included doing anything from interpersonal care to food provision and lifting people who were unable to move independently. </p>
<p>I was more than thankful for the support of my migrant co-workers. But for them, the stresses of the job <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10170958/">were compounded</a> by the discrimination they could face from care home residents and their families, as well as colleagues and managers. </p>
<p>Immigrants to the UK have to contend with an ever more <a href="https://theconversation.com/hostile-environment-the-uk-governments-draconian-immigration-policy-explained-95460">hostile</a> immigration system. Under these new proposals, economic migrant workers will not be allowed to bring their dependants with them. The proposals also make it harder for care providers in England to be able to sponsor migrant workers’ own visa requests. </p>
<p>Governments across western Europe have <a href="https://comparativemigrationstudies.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40878-016-0046-7">justified</a> hostile immigration policies on the grounds that restricting immigration protects the welfare state. In other words, they posit migrants as a threat to the country’s economic and social wellbeing.</p>
<p>Similarly, the UK government’s restrictions on migrant care workers’ rights frames immigrants as a root cause of economic problems. This ignores the fact that the UK depends on its migrant workforce of carers more than most EU countries. In September 2021, 21% of NHS England’s hospital and community health service workforce <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/migration-and-the-health-and-care-workforce/">was made up of overseas workers</a>. </p>
<p>The drive to target migrant care workers is particularly galling, given it was this government who actively sought to reduce the crisis in care by recruiting overseas workers. The health and care worker visa was launched in 2020, in a direct response to the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-launches-health-and-care-visa-to-ensure-uk-health-and-care-services-have-access-to-the-best-global-talent">pandemic-led need</a> for more healthcare workers. </p>
<p>In the 12 months from September 2022, 101,000 of these visas were issued to care workers and senior care workers from overseas. Further, 120,000 visas were granted to carers’ dependants. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A carer in pink with an elderly lady in red." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578854/original/file-20240229-26-rzo7n3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578854/original/file-20240229-26-rzo7n3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578854/original/file-20240229-26-rzo7n3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578854/original/file-20240229-26-rzo7n3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578854/original/file-20240229-26-rzo7n3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578854/original/file-20240229-26-rzo7n3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578854/original/file-20240229-26-rzo7n3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The UK care workforce is under severe pressure.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/medical-helping-old-woman-49514230">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The pandemic saw frontline healthcare staff championed as “angels” and “superheroes”. That contrasts heavily with the language Cleverly has used to describe migrant care workers. In his announcement, he raised concerns about “high levels of non-compliance” and “worker exploitation and abuse” within the adult social care sector. He has also cited the majority of care-worker dependants not working but “making use of public services” as a reason for the new restrictions. </p>
<p>The government’s disregard for these <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-windrush-generation-how-a-resilient-caribbean-community-made-a-lasting-contribution-to-british-society-204571">workers and their families</a> is reminiscent of other examples of migrants being recruited and then later undermined. In 1948, Britain opened its doors to citizens of its colonies to fill labour market voids from wartime losses. The NHS leaned heavily on migrant workers and within 10 years, around 125,000 West Indians and a further 55,000 people from India and Pakistan had come to the UK to work.</p>
<p>But, as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/windrush-compensation-scheme-how-the-uk-government-is-failing-its-citizens-with-this-belittling-and-horrible-process-204840">ongoing Windrush scandal</a> shows, thousands of those workers and their families have since been refused existing residency rights, lost livelihoods and access to healthcare, and been threatened with deportation. </p>
<p>The home secretary is seeking to deter rather than attract people to provide an immeasurably valuable service. The irony that those who are caring for UK residents’ families, friends and neighbours are being “banned” from caring for their own should not be ignored.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224190/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victoria Canning has received funding from UKRI and British Academy. </span></em></p>The care industry is tough work - making migrant carers’ lives harder will only worsen a deepening crisis.Victoria Canning, Professor of Criminology, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2220862024-01-30T16:53:09Z2024-01-30T16:53:09ZBespoke humanitarian visa schemes like those for Ukraine and Hong Kong can’t replace the asylum system<p>The UK government has spent the past three years working to reduce the number of refugees coming to the country. At the same time, political crises around the world have meant millions of people needing to flee their home countries and seek asylum elsewhere, including the UK.</p>
<p>Alongside <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/36/contents/enacted">new</a> <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/illegal-migration-bill">laws</a> designed to tighten the asylum system, the government has launched two bespoke humanitarian visa schemes providing “safe and legal routes” for people from Hong Kong and Ukraine amid political turmoil and war. These schemes exempt beneficiaries from going through the usual asylum process, and give them immediate access to live and work in the UK – something that is denied to other asylum seekers.</p>
<p>The government has <a href="https://www.parallelparliament.co.uk/mp/nick-thomas-symonds/debate/2021-03-24/commons/commons-chamber/new-plan-for-immigration">presented</a> these schemes as evidence of the Conservatives’ enduring commitment to defending human rights and providing humanitarian protections. To date, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-system-statistics-year-ending-september-2023/summary-of-latest-statistics#how-many-people-do-we-grant-protection-to">more than 324,000</a> Hong Kongers and Ukrainians have come to the UK through these routes.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://zenodo.org/records/10571433">new report</a> drawn from in-depth interviews with 43 people, reveals what the people who have used these routes actually think of them. What they’ve told us shows that these programmes, while providing some protections, are not a viable replacement for the UK’s mainstream refugee protection.</p>
<h2>Hong Kongers: paying for protection</h2>
<p>The first of these schemes was a <a href="https://theconversation.com/hong-kong-political-turmoil-provokes-difficult-decisions-about-whether-to-leave-155994">humanitarian visa</a> introduced in January 2021 for those eligible for British National Overseas (BN(O)) status seeking to leave Hong Kong in the wake of political oppression, including the introduction of the national security law which gives the pro-Beijing administration extensive powers of arrest and detention.</p>
<p>To be eligible for this scheme, applicants must demonstrate that they can support themselves in the UK for six months and pay the associated visa fees and healthcare surcharge. For a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/british-national-overseas-bno-visa/how-much-it-costs">two-and-a-half year visa</a>, costs amount to £1,740. For a five-year visa it is £3,370. </p>
<p>This visa is unusual among humanitarian protections, in that people have to pay for the protections they are offered. They have the right to live, work and study in the UK, but limited or no access to welfare support. This contrasts to the support offered to others with refugee status, and those coming to the UK through its other designated humanitarian routes.</p>
<p>For the Hong Kongers we spoke to, many reported being unable to find work that matched their skills and experiences. One interviewee highlighted that she was working shifts in a factory, where previously her degree-level training meant that she had been a office worker. Others faced difficulties finding suitable housing upon arrival, particularly for those seeking rental accommodation. </p>
<p>Most people with refugee status who want to study at university in the UK pay <a href="https://www.ukcisa.org.uk/Information--Advice/Fees-and-Money/England-HE-fee-status#layer-6082">“home student”</a> fees to do so. But Hong Kongers on the BN(O) scheme are considered international students, and must pay a higher fee status to study at university.</p>
<p>The scheme allows a route to permanent residence after five years. While Hong Kongers felt the visa offered them protection temporarily, they said they did not feel sufficiently supported to settle long-term in the UK. Candice, a young Hong Konger, explained some of the challenges:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I know that Hong Kong people have no recourse to public funds. But actually some of their situations, they really need some help from social services (…) , they [social services] also have the responsibility to help […] the Hong Kong people are not like really want to rely on the benefit, but sometimes they just need like a little help. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Ukrainians: protection, but for how long?</h2>
<p>The UK introduced visa schemes in March 2022 for Ukrainians fleeing after Russia’s invasion. People must apply for a visa before travelling to the UK, and eligibility depends on either UK family connections or community sponsorship from churches, local organisations or volunteers.</p>
<p>As sponsors have to demonstrate that they have suitable accommodation, Ukrainians arriving in the UK do not have to worry about finding housing. They gain the immediate right to work, access to certain welfare benefits, and a home fee status for those seeking university education, among other rights.</p>
<p>The biggest concern for Ukrainians on the scheme who we spoke to is that the protections are temporary, lasting just three years and with no clear pathway yet to permanent residence. Refugees typically get <a href="https://www.gov.uk/claim-asylum/decision">permission to stay</a> for a minimum of five years initially, after which they can apply to settle long-term in the UK.</p>
<p>Ukrainian visa holders see their right to stay as contingent on the evolving events in Ukraine. This is, of course, affected by the changing political climate and <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/2447a4b4-bbff-4439-a96c-e3c5404ed105">wavering commitment</a> to Ukraine in the UK and the west.</p>
<p>This uncertainty impedes their ability to plan for the future, and makes those on the scheme feel insecure. It has had practical implications too, with many Ukrainians facing <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-thousands-of-ukrainian-refugees-in-the-uk-are-now-homeless-210234">homelessness</a> after being unable to secure long-term housing. Ukrainian children on this scheme are spending important formative years in the UK and many feel increasingly anchored to the UK irrespective of the outcome of the war.</p>
<p>Oksana, a Ukrainian visa holder in her 40s, felt this uncertainty:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I can’t imagine what the UK government will do in the future. After three years […], it’s for me like no future … I need to know what I can expect after maybe one year, two year. Because I can’t imagine it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Contrary to the government’s claims that these arrangements are robust forms of humanitarian protection, people on the visas are facing significant challenges. There is clearly some distance between what the government considers appropriate protection for people fleeing war and political oppression, and the experiences of those benefiting from said protection. </p>
<p>If the plan is to offer more of these schemes, more thought must be given to how they can help vulnerable people integrate in the UK Over the long term – not leaving them insecure and struggling to support themselves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222086/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nando Sigona receives funding from the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michaela Benson receives funding from Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p>For a new report, researchers spoke with dozens of people on the Hong Kong and Ukraine visas about their experiences.Nando Sigona, Professor of International Migration and Forced Displacement and Director of the Institute for Research into Superdiversity, University of BirminghamMichaela Benson, Professor in Public Sociology, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2196892023-12-12T10:17:14Z2023-12-12T10:17:14ZRishi Sunak’s Rwanda bill: how much trouble is the prime minister really in as MPs threaten a parliamentary rebellion?<p>The legislative process in Britain consists of a series of discrete stages, each with its own purpose and function. A bill’s second reading is the discussion of, and vote on, the principle of the legislation. As <a href="https://erskinemay.parliament.uk/">Erskine May</a>, the so-called bible of parliamentary procedure, puts it: “Its whole principle is at issue, and is affirmed or denied by the House.” </p>
<p>The last time a government lost a vote on the second reading of one of its own bills was 1986. The significance of that particular vote is not just that it took place almost 40 years ago, but that it was the only occasion a government with a working majority lost a bill at second reading in the entire 20th century. So, while we can say that it would not be unprecedented if the government went down to defeat over the <a href="https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3540">Rwanda bill</a>, it would be extremely unusual.</p>
<p>And while the defeat in 1986 was embarrassing, the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-35762227">shops bill</a>, which attempted to liberalise Sunday trading laws, was not a central plank of the Thatcher government’s programme. The Rwanda vote is on something much more significant. Its defeat would leave a void where the government’s immigration policy was meant to be.</p>
<h2>Is this a confidence vote?</h2>
<p>Government figures have said they don’t see this vote as a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uks-new-rwanda-bill-wont-work-former-interior-minister-2023-12-07/">matter of confidence</a>, and there is nothing about losing a vote, or even a whole bill, that requires them to. Constitutionally, the government can lose this vote, keep calm and carry on, just as Margaret Thatcher did in 1986. Still, it’s fair to say that losing a measure of this significance would have been enough to bring down a government in the 19th century – and would still cause considerable political discomfort in the 21st.</p>
<p>The flip side of all of this, however, is that winning the vote – as still looks more likely – is not in itself something to be proud of. It is not a particularly remarkable achievement for a government with a majority of over 50 to win a second reading vote. </p>
<p>And even if it does win, celebrations should be muted as there are plenty of parliamentary hurdles ahead. After second reading, there will be a programme motion which sets out the timetable for the bill’s passage. These can be tricky. It was the programme motion that derailed House of Lords reform under the coalition government of 2010-15, for example. Then we have the committee and report stages – both opportunities for MPs to vote for amendments – before there is a third reading vote in the House of Commons on the bill as finally constituted. </p>
<p>Then it goes to the Lords, where the government does not have a majority and where multiple amendments are all but certain. In turn, the government can try to overturn Lords amendments with votes in the Commons, but each such vote is another hurdle and the chance for another rebellion, with no guarantee of success.</p>
<p>This is, at least in part, why MPs rarely vote down bills at their second reading – because they can always try to amend them later as they progress through parliament, to take out the worst bits or beef up the good bits. Better to focus on a rebellion where it might achieve something, they argue, rather than trying to kill a bill in its entirety.</p>
<h2>Rebellion on both sides</h2>
<p>Perhaps the key problem faced by the government whips is not the scale of the discontent per se, but that it comes from two opposing wings of the party.</p>
<p>Those on the right (crudely put) see the bill – in the words of the European Research Group – as “partial and incomplete”. They therefore want to see it strengthened. Other Conservative MPs (variously described as “moderate”, “mainstream” or “centrists” – you can pick your own nomenclature) think it already goes far enough, maybe even too far, and will resist any expansion of its powers. The problem for the whips is that any concessions granted to one group will make it more likely that the others will kick off. </p>
<p>In voting terms, these two groups have unequal opportunities. Because Labour has said it will oppose the bill – and will almost certainly resist any of the amendments the right would desire – amendments from the right of the party will go down to defeat if they are opposed by the government, almost regardless of their size. On the other hand, it is plausible to imagine scenarios under which those on the left of the party might make common cause with the opposition and bring about government defeats.</p>
<p>Yet this isn’t quite the same as saying that the right are powerless. They have an important veto power. If, by the bill’s third reading, they are still unhappy, they can form an unholy alliance with the opposition and bring the whole measure down. Their plan, therefore, is to try to persuade the government to strengthen the bill by moving its own amendments, which they will support. </p>
<p>Yet this isn’t straightforward either. For one thing, the government has already said it cannot go much further. Plus, each one of these amendments is, in turn, a chance for the other wing of the party to rebel; and they too have a veto power at third reading. The last time a government lost a bill at third reading is 1977.</p>
<p>Incidentally, the phrase “partial and incomplete” comes from Corinthians in the Bible, from the verse that contains the famous line: “When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.”</p>
<p>Maybe you think that apt, or maybe you don’t. But it also contains this sentence, which definitely sums up where we are: “Even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219689/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip Cowley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There was only one case of a government losing a vote on a second reading in all of the 20th century.Philip Cowley, Professor, School of Politics and International Relations, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2139232023-10-11T11:38:27Z2023-10-11T11:38:27ZLabour’s immigration policy: will focus on ‘security’ win an election?<p>Labour’s immigration policy is starting to take shape. Migration, historically, has been a <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-64692-3">tricky issue for the party</a>. So it’s perhaps not surprising that they are taking a leaf from the Conservative playbook by focusing on border security. But Labour has shifted the villain from asylum seekers to smuggling gangs. </p>
<p>Speaking at Labour party conference, the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, announced a new cross-border unit of hundreds of police officers to go after smugglers. Labour leader Keir Starmer has vowed to <a href="https://www.channel4.com/news/keir-starmer-promises-to-smash-people-smuggling-gangs">“smash the gangs”</a>, to treat people smuggling on par with terrorism and to use serious crime orders to freeze smugglers’ assets and restrict their movement. </p>
<p>Starmer and Cooper also recently travelled to The Hague for talks with Europol (the EU’s law enforcement agency) about sharing criminal data – something that ended after Brexit. And noises have been made about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/sep/14/labour-will-treat-channel-people-smugglers-as-terrorists-says-starmer">cooperating with Europe</a> on a returns agreement, where the UK would accept a quota of asylum seekers who arrive in the EU, in exchange for being able to return people who cross the channel. </p>
<p>While not the inflammatory comments of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/suella-braverman-warns-of-unmanageable-numbers-of-asylum-seekers-the-data-shows-we-hardly-take-any-214014">current home secretary, Suella Braverman</a>, Labour’s rhetoric so far still squarely frames asylum as a security issue. This is not the progressive approach some on the left will be hoping for. It feeds into the populist idea that migration is always a crisis, and has an element of inhumanity and utilitarianism – migrants are people, not trade agreements.</p>
<p>But given the public’s current attitudes on migration (nuanced) and trust in the Conservatives on the issue (low), it’s an electorally safe approach.</p>
<p>The suggestion of working with Europe, which gives the Conservatives ammunition to frame Labour as wanting to rejoin the EU, isn’t much of a risk. Brexit and the topic of Europe are arguably <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/45910-britons-would-vote-rejoin-eu?redirect_from=%2Ftopics%2Fpolitics%2Farticles-reports%2F2023%2F07%2F18%2Fbritons-would-vote-rejoin-eu">less divisive</a> than in the last election. </p>
<h2>Who is this approach for?</h2>
<p>The focus on security is a bid to win back key “red wall” voters who fled to the Conservatives in 2019, and <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/45511-will-focus-immigration-help-conservatives-among-th">care slightly more</a> about immigration than other groups. This is evident in Starmer’s recent statement that those who oppose his proposals on migration are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/sep/14/labour-will-treat-channel-people-smugglers-as-terrorists-says-starmer">“unbritish”</a> – a dog-whistle to precisely these “patriotic left” voters. </p>
<p>But the characterisation of red wall voters as <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/35893-stereotypical-image-red-wall-residents-accurate?redirect_from=%2Ftopics%2Fpolitics%2Farticles-reports%2F2021%2F05%2F17%2Fstereotypical-image-red-wall-residents-accurate">simply anti-migrant isn’t accurate</a>. While migration is a priority, it still sits behind more pressing concerns like the <a href="https://www.labourtogether.uk/all-reports/red-shift">cost of living crisis</a>. Focusing too much, or taking too hard a line on immigration won’t win them voters and could lose some younger left-wing voters who <a href="https://www.labourtogether.uk/all-reports/red-shift">favour increased immigration</a>. </p>
<p>To that end, Starmer has also confirmed that Labour would overturn the new law that stops cross-Channel migrants <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/4b7f862e-3c81-4f34-8013-12f51fe32b01">claiming asylum in Britain</a>, scrap the policy to <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/keir-starmer-says-he-would-scrap-the-rwanda-scheme-even-if-it-is-legal-and-working_uk_6522972de4b0a32c15bee9df">deport people to Rwanda</a> and end the use of barges and hotels to house asylum seekers. </p>
<p>These are all positive developments for those wanting a more progressive policy, and would at least fracture the current system, which is inhumane and unworkable.</p>
<p>Public attitudes on immigration have <a href="https://www.ippr.org/files/2022-11/a-new-consensus-november-22.pdf">shifted dramatically in the last decade</a>. On the whole, evidence suggests that attitudes have <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/uk-public-opinion-toward-immigration-overall-attitudes-and-level-of-concern/">softened</a> and the UK public now has among the <a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/uk-attitudes-to-immigration-among-most-positive-internationally-1018742-pub01-115">most positive attitudes</a> towards immigration internationally. </p>
<p>At the same time, the public <a href="https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/infographics/migration-eurobarometer-2018/">overestimate</a> both the number of asylum seekers as a <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/reports/thinking-behind-the-numbers-understanding-public-opinion-on-immigration-in-britain/">proportion of immigration</a> and the number of migrants overall. Focusing heavily on asylum seekers or net migration targets will only feed into these misconceptions.</p>
<p>One area where we haven’t heard much from Labour is on labour migration, arguably the more pressing issue in terms of Britain’s economic security. Starmer <a href="https://theconversation.com/labour-sounds-like-the-tories-on-immigration-but-its-policy-goes-back-to-its-trade-union-roots-195221">suggested last autumn</a> that future policy would involve trade unions. If Labour gets the balance right they could craft a more progressive policy that treats migrants respectfully while also gaining support from unions and a disgruntled business sector. </p>
<h2>Will this strategy work?</h2>
<p>The public already <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/45511-will-focus-immigration-help-conservatives-among-th">trusts Labour more on immigration</a>, and has little faith in the current government to <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/trust-conservative-government-have-right-immigration-policies-down-7ppts-march-braverman">deliver on their promises</a>.</p>
<p>Targeting criminal gangs as the security threat on the border might be electorally rational. Labour can talk tough to appease the voters it needs to win back, while keeping with a more ideologically coherent position that doesn’t paint migrants themselves as a problem. As we know from the reaction to Ed Miliband’s <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/what-starmer-can-learn-from-miliband-s-mug/">“Controls on immigration” mug</a> in 2015, anti-migrant sentiment does not play well for Labour.</p>
<p>As the election nears, Braverman is going to keep talking about asylum seekers, which will <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13501763.2018.1531909">ramp the issue up the agenda</a>. But this is a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-uks-unworkable-immigration-plans-allow-the-government-to-blame-others-for-its-failure-202207">distraction</a> from her own party’s failures on the issue – and more a bid for party leadership than a stance as home secretary.</p>
<p>The general public’s attitudes on migration are more nuanced than Braverman’s rhetoric would suggest. Labour’s security focus might make electoral sense, but it still pulls from <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/secure-borders-safe-haven-integration-with-diversity-in-modern-britain">old playbooks</a>, both Labour and Conservative. </p>
<p>Starmer could take this opportunity to tell a more positive story about immigration, carve a clear progressive position for Labour and move the discussion away from numbers – a strategy that will never deliver. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/net-migration-how-an-unreachable-target-came-to-shape-britain-206430">Net migration: how an unreachable target came to shape Britain</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213923/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erica Consterdine does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Labour has vowed to crack down on smuggling gangs.Erica Consterdine, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2121342023-08-30T15:07:23Z2023-08-30T15:07:23Z‘When you get status the struggle doesn’t end’: what it’s like to be a new refugee in the UK<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544768/original/file-20230825-21-kmgcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=299%2C154%2C5416%2C3085&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/italian-passport-pages-visa-stamps-1704424636">Maramade/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When someone applies for asylum in the UK today, they may be waiting months or even years for their application to be decided, thanks to the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66603767">record-high backlog</a> that the government is failing to tackle. </p>
<p>The vast majority of asylum claims are successful. Up to 77% of applications have been granted refugee status since 2021, a substantial increase from the pre-pandemic years, when only one-third of applications received a positive decision. But approval of an asylum application is not an instant guarantee of a safe and secure life in the UK. On the contrary, new refugees are immediately thrust into another period of limbo that puts them at risk of poverty and homelessness.</p>
<p>While awaiting their decision, new refugees in the UK are housed in accommodation <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9831/#:%7E:text=Contingency%20hotels%20have%20been%20more,in%20hotels%20in%20October%202020.">provided by the government</a> – currently in hotels, dispersal accommodation, or sites such as the Bibby Stockholm barge – and receive a small amount of money (£6.77 per day for adults) for food, clothing and toiletries. When awarded refugee status, they must leave their accommodation and are cut off from government support. </p>
<p>They can now work, rent a house and access state benefits, including social housing. But this transition happens very quickly, and new refugees have only 28 days, including weekends and bank holidays, to access the essential services they need to rebuild their lives. </p>
<p>Organisations supporting refugees <a href="https://www.redcross.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/we-speak-up-for-change/improving-the-lives-of-refugees/refugee-move-on-period">have called for</a> the period to be extended to 56 days, to give people adequate time to set up their lives in the UK and give local government time to offer needed support. This has been discussed in both houses of parliament, but no progress has been made. </p>
<p>It would also bring this period in line with existing legislation on <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/homelessness-code-of-guidance-for-local-authorities/chapter-12-duty-in-cases-of-threatened-homelessness-the-prevention-duty#:%7E:text=12.1%20Section%20195%20of%20the,prevent%20them%20from%20becoming%20homelessness.">homelessness reduction</a> which requires local authorities to work to try to find accommodation for anyone at risk of becoming homeless in the next 56 days. </p>
<p>Yet the Home Office appears to have moved in the opposite direction. Refugee organisations <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/15/thousands-of-refugees-could-face-homelessness-after-home-office-policy-change">have reported</a> that some people are receiving just seven days’ notice to leave their accommodation. </p>
<p>The Home Office has said that the policy has not changed, telling the Guardian that “an asylum seeker remains eligible for asylum support for a prescribed period from the day they are notified of the decision on their claim”. </p>
<p>Previously, new refugees received a letter informing them that their existing support and accommodation will end in 28 days. This letter is crucial to start homelessness proceedings at local authority level, and to give refugees a timeline to plan for changing circumstances.</p>
<p><a href="https://freemovement.org.uk/home-office-change-in-practice-increases-risk-of-homelessness-for-recognised-refugees/">Any shortening</a> of the guaranteed 28-day notice period would put impossible pressure on local authorities to help refugees find accommodation and would further push people into poverty and homelessness.</p>
<h2>The ‘destitution gap’</h2>
<p>In my ongoing research, I’ve conducted dozens of interviews with new refugees, as well as representatives from local authorities and charities in the north of England. Their comments reveal how this 28-day period often results in homelessness, labour exploitation and financial destitution. </p>
<p>The British Red Cross has labelled the time between the end of government asylum support and access to universal credit and other resources the “<a href="https://www.redcross.org.uk/-/media/documents/about-us/research-publications/refugee-support/the-costs-of-destitution.pdf">destitution gap</a>”. During this time, new refugees frequently turn to food banks and charities, or take on exploitative jobs. As one person explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Twenty-eight days is not enough to sort anything, and your money is cut … you ended up being homeless, not having a place to go and not having something to eat.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>New refugees are not allowed to work while awaiting a decision, and therefore are unable to save money, effectively meaning many cannot support themselves straight away.</p>
<p>To access benefits such as universal credit they need a national insurance number. But my research highlights that this is not given to a new refugee until their identification card is sent out, which can be several days (or weeks) after the positive decision, and many cards arrive containing errors. </p>
<p>Even a timely application can keep new refugees in the destitution gap – it takes approximately <a href="https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit/how-youre-paid">five weeks</a> for the first payment of universal credit to arrive in a bank account.</p>
<p>New refugees also face difficulty finding somewhere to live. Accessing the private rental market is near impossible without a deposit, job, or reference. Social housing is in short supply in the UK, and the local authorities I interviewed rarely found accommodation for new refugees within 28 days. </p>
<p>Many new refugees become <a href="https://naccom.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/NACCOM-Homelessnesss-Report_2018-05-20_EMAIL.pdf">homeless</a>, and are moved into hostels, bed and breakfast accommodation or end up on the street. Children may move schools, and new refugees are uprooted from their support systems, faith networks and communities. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two men stand on the pavement outside of a JobCentrePlus" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545556/original/file-20230830-20-2kxf1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545556/original/file-20230830-20-2kxf1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545556/original/file-20230830-20-2kxf1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545556/original/file-20230830-20-2kxf1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545556/original/file-20230830-20-2kxf1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545556/original/file-20230830-20-2kxf1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545556/original/file-20230830-20-2kxf1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Seven days is not enough time to find a job or housing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/westonsupermare-uk-august-26-2015-two-311273393">BasPhoto/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Local authorities and support organisations help to bridge this gap. They work with new refugees to find accommodation, take them to Job Centre appointments, set up bank accounts and navigate the online world of benefits. But even their help is limited in such a short time frame. As one local authority representative told me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[People] are moving from one terrible system that’s falling apart to another terrible system that’s falling apart … they might be safe in some ways but that doesn’t mean that everything is going to be OK now.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This high level of change in a short period causes acute anxiety for new refugees, affecting their ability to move on and settle in the UK. Given that refugees have often experienced significant trauma, the threat of homelessness, financial destitution and a lack of access to food when they are granted status can be incredibly difficult to cope with. As one refugee, a single mother with a child recounted:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When you get refugee status the struggle doesn’t end. It is another big struggle which starts. I need to leave this property, I need to apply for universal credit, I need to leave everything. Am I going to be homeless? What’s going to happen?</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212134/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah M. Hughes currently receives funding from The British Academy. She has previously received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council.</span></em></p>New refugees have just 28 days to access the essential services they need to rebuild their lives in the UK. In the ‘destitution gap’, many will become homeless.Sarah M. Hughes, Assistant Professor in Human Geography, Northumbria University, NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2112412023-08-09T16:00:01Z2023-08-09T16:00:01ZSending UK asylum seekers to Ascension Island is a legal non-starter – if the government really is planning to do it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541741/original/file-20230808-29-zaij4p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=58%2C58%2C4798%2C3152&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/porpoise-point-ascension-island-middle-atlantic-2073002516">Shutterstock/Alexander Trybushny</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As part of attempts to prevent people crossing the English Channel in small boats, the UK government has been briefing the press that it is considering sending arrivals to <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/government-illegal-migrants-ascension-island-rwanda-b2388582.html">Ascension Island</a> – a remote piece of land in the Atlantic Ocean inhabited by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascension_Island">fewer than 900 people</a>. This idea was originally mooted in 2021 and dropped on the grounds that it was unworkable. </p>
<p>No formal announcement has been made and one can only hope that the government won’t see through on such a plan given how much it would cost. If it did go ahead, it would soon find it to be legally problematic. It would most likely be in direct contradiction to the European convention on human rights, which, among other things, prohibits torture and inhuman and degrading treatment.</p>
<p>Last year, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg blocked the UK government from sending <a href="https://theconversation.com/rwanda-deportations-what-is-the-european-court-of-human-rights-and-why-did-it-stop-the-uk-flight-from-taking-off-185143">asylum seekers to Rwanda</a> – although it hasn’t yet delivered a final ruling on the matter. British courts also ruled it unsafe to send asylum seekers there, a decision that the government is appealing at <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rwanda-supreme-court-small-boats-migrants-b2370598.html">the Supreme Court</a>. </p>
<p>Perhaps in anticipation that these legal battles will be lost, other ideas are flying around.</p>
<h2>What’s the difference between sending people to Rwanda and Ascension Island?</h2>
<p>The main difference between sending people to Rwanda and Ascension Island is that the latter is a British overseas territory. </p>
<p>A key point in legal terms is that anyone on Ascension Island has the right to <a href="https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list?module=declarations-by-treaty&numSte=005&codeNature=0">submit complaints directly to the ECHR</a> about their treatment. In other words, if someone is tortured on Ascension Island they can complain to the ECHR about it. If they are tortured in Rwanda, they can’t.</p>
<h2>Can the ECHR block removals to Ascension Island?</h2>
<p>It would be unusual but not impossible for the ECHR to prevent a country from moving people from one part to another. However, it is also highly unusual for a government to send asylum seekers to a territory like Ascension Island in the first place, so it is difficult to tell how the European court would react. It may come down to the conditions on the island. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/?i=001-103050">2011 case</a>, the ECHR found Belgium had violated the European convention on human rights when it returned a refugee to Greece because the living conditions they experienced there were inhuman and degrading. </p>
<p>Belgium and Greece are of course different countries but as they are both signatures to the convention, the victim remained inside the territory of the court’s power. The relationship between these two different nations is, in practice, therefore somewhat similar as the relationship between the UK and Ascension Island, at least in relation to the convention.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A map showing Ascension Island in the Southern Atlantic, off the west coast of Africa." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541743/original/file-20230808-21-bpj358.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541743/original/file-20230808-21-bpj358.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541743/original/file-20230808-21-bpj358.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541743/original/file-20230808-21-bpj358.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541743/original/file-20230808-21-bpj358.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541743/original/file-20230808-21-bpj358.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541743/original/file-20230808-21-bpj358.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ascension is an extremely remote island in the Southern Atlantic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascension_Island#/media/File:Ascension_Island_on_the_Globe_(in_the_United_Kingdom).svg">Wikipedia/RaviC</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The ECHR can prevent transfer from within the state if it decides that such transfer would cause immediate harm. For instance, it can ask for someone to be moved from a prison hospital to a civil hospital in the same city if they are at risk. </p>
<p>If the court established that the treatment in Ascension Island might cause such harm, then it can apply interim measures (as it did to stop the Rwanda flight).</p>
<p>This example is particularly pertinent since it appears there <a href="https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/government-send-channel-migrants-to-ascension-island-africa-rwanda-blocked/">isn’t even a hospital on Ascension Island</a>. If anyone sent there needed medical attention, the ECHR might order the UK government to move them to a proper medical facility, which might be costly and complicated. </p>
<p>And if proper living facilities are not set up – if there is no access to water, sanitation and food – the UK government can be found in violation of article 3 of the convention, which prohibits torture, inhuman and degrading treatment.</p>
<p>If the asylum seekers have family in the UK, then sending them to Ascension Island might also violate their right to private and family life. The court dealt with a comparable situation in <a href="https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/?i=001-122697">2013</a> when Russia sent two people to remote colonies (thousands of miles from home but notably still on Russian territory) to serve prison sentences. </p>
<p>The court ruled that their inability to communicate with their relatives constituted a violation of their rights. It’s unclear if people sent to Ascension Island would have access to the internet or phones but communication is evidently an inherent challenge in such an isolated place. </p>
<h2>Is this plan really going to go ahead?</h2>
<p>At times it seems as though the UK government moots ideas of this kind without the intention of seeing through on them in order to stir up outrage among its political opponents or blame a lack of progress on immigration on people trying to block its plans. </p>
<p>And indeed, the need for the Ascension Island policy escapes me. The stated aim of the Rwanda policy was to <a href="https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2022/04/14/factsheet-migration-and-economic-development-partnership/">deter people from using illegal ways of getting to the UK</a>. </p>
<p>According to this line of thinking, for Ascension Island to act as a deterrent, the conditions there would have to be bad. And in that case, the ECHR would not allow the UK to send people there. </p>
<p>A more realistic but unannounced aim of the Rwanda policy could perhaps be to remove these people from the protection of human rights law both within the UK and from the European Convention on Human Rights, thereby relieving the UK of its responsibilities towards them. </p>
<p>Clearly, removal to Ascension Island can hardly achieve this latter aim because the protection of the convention spreads to this island. The cost of relocation and then possibly bringing people back if their claims are substantiated would also be significant.</p>
<p>This policy, if it really is in the works, is likely to violate multiple rights under the European convention on human rights and unlikely to achieve any meaningful purpose. It would be a waste of taxpayers’ money.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211241/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kanstantsin Dzehtsiarou consults to the Council of Europe on their Human Rights Programmes. </span></em></p>The UK government is briefing that a remote patch of land in the South Atlantic could become a processing hub for people crossing the Channel in small boats.Kanstantsin Dzehtsiarou, Professor in Human Rights Law, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2068852023-07-13T17:21:56Z2023-07-13T17:21:56ZMinority ethnic politicians are pushing harsh immigration policies – why representation doesn’t always mean racial justice<p>There’s no question that British politics is becoming more diverse. From only four minority ethnic MPs elected in 1987, <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn01156/">now 67 MPs are</a> from a minority ethnic background. </p>
<p>The Scottish first minister, Humza Yousaf, recently became the first minority ethnic leader of a devolved government and the first Muslim to lead a major UK party. Yousaf follows a number of historic firsts: a Muslim mayor of London (Sadiq Khan), the first British Asian UK prime minister (Rishi Sunak), and the first female minority ethnic home secretary (Priti Patel) succeeded by another minority ethnic woman, (Suella Braverman).</p>
<p>People often assume that if a person in power is an ethnic minority, they will <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2647821">advocate more strongly for minority ethnic</a> communities. But, as our <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/03063968231164599">research shows</a>, ethnic diversity in government is not a guarantee of racial justice.</p>
<p>Some minority ethnic politicians align themselves with a “model minority” archetype, attributing their success to quintessentially British, conservative values of hard work and entrepreneurship. This was an oft-repeated message in the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/03063968231164599">2022 Conservative leadership campaign</a>, the most racially diverse in history. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/it-matters-that-rishi-sunak-has-become-the-uks-first-prime-minister-of-indian-descent-193154">It matters that Rishi Sunak has become the UK’s first prime minister of Indian descent</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Minority ethnic politicians’ presence in the senior echelons of UK politics is a symbol of diversity and social progressiveness. This, ironically, allows these government ministers to justify policies that are cruel to immigrants, and ignore legitimate concerns of minority ethnic citizens.</p>
<p>Badenoch has <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2020-10-20/debates/5B0E393E-8778-4973-B318-C17797DFBB22/BlackHistoryMonth?highlight=critical%20race%20theory#contribution-C8980402-C448-4265-B82A-F3A465E34808">rebuffed calls</a> for more teaching of black history in schools. A 2020 report from the race equality thinktank <a href="https://assets.website-files.com/61488f992b58e687f1108c7c/61bcc0cc2a023368396c03d4_Runnymede%20Secondary%20Schools%20report%20FINAL.pdf">the Runnymede Trust</a> said that more diversity in what children are taught is key to addressing the racism that is “deeply embedded” in Britain’s schools.</p>
<p>Speaking about perpetrators of child sexual exploitation, Braverman claimed grooming gangs are <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/suella-braverman-describes-grooming-gang-comments-as-unfashionable-facts-after-backlash-12861676">“almost all British Pakistani men”</a>. This was despite the government’s own <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/04/suella-braverman-grooming-gangs-child-seual-abuse-home-secretary-prejudice">evidence to the contrary</a>. She was flanked by Sunak suggesting that “political correctness” and “cultural sensitivities” were getting in the way of <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/rishi-sunaks-war-on-grooming-gang-political-correctness-ignores-one-important-fact_uk_642a9731e4b0b2ba23230260">stamping grooming gangs out</a>. </p>
<p>As home secretary, Priti Patel criticised Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020, and described <a href="https://bylinetimes.com/2019/10/03/the-dangers-of-priti-patels-racial-gatekeeping/">England’s footballers</a> taking the knee – a <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/sport/articles-reports/2021/06/10/taking-the-knee-football-fans-europe-support">widely-supported</a> symbol of anti-racist activism – as “gesture politics”.</p>
<p>Patel has implied that as a victim of racism herself, she – and the government – <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohXxmD78ZCo">understand racial inequality</a>. Her sidelining of others’ very real experiences of racism is seemingly permissible, given Patel’s minority ethnic identity.</p>
<h2>Anti-immigration sentiment</h2>
<p>There are also examples of minority ethnic ministers pushing policies that actively stigmatise and target vulnerable minority groups. </p>
<p>The illegal migration bill is the latest example of this. As <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/03063968231164599">post-racial gatekeepers</a>, politicians like Braverman give legitimacy to hard-right views on race and immigration. At the same time, they prop up the line that immigration is no longer about race. </p>
<p>At the Conservative Conference in 2022, Braverman said, <a href="https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1577345119296028678?s=20">“It’s not racist for anyone,</a> ethnic minority or otherwise, to want to control our borders.” And yet she has likened refugee flows to an “invasion” and said that immigration threatens the UK’s <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-14/sunak-vows-to-crack-on-with-uk-push-to-end-illegal-immigration#:%7E:text=Britain%20can't%20have%20%E2%80%9Cimmigration,for%20the%20Tories'%20populist%20right.">“national character”</a>.</p>
<p>Notably, the government’s immigration policies of recent years are being formulated and championed by politicians who are themselves the children or grandchildren of immigrants. Sunak’s grandparents were among the Hindu and Sikh refugees who fled Punjab following the partition of India. Patel admitted that her own parents would not have been allowed into the UK <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/priti-patel-immigration-laws-parents-home-office-brexit-a9343571.html">under her immigration laws</a>. </p>
<p>The illegal migration bill comes just a year after Patel led the passage of the Nationality and Borders Act. Both policies are designed to keep out outsiders, many of whom are black or brown. It is contradictory that the ministers responsible for these policies are descendants of immigrants themselves. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/illegal-immigration-bill-does-more-than-push-the-boundaries-of-international-law-201332">Illegal immigration bill does more than 'push the boundaries' of international law</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Immigration is still about race</h2>
<p>Despite comments like Braverman’s, evidence shows that immigration is still very much linked to race and racism. </p>
<p>Many minority ethnic people – even those who are British-born or naturalised citizens – feel they are still <a href="https://assets.website-files.com/61488f992b58e687f1108c7c/61bccc2aa4494c30f56095fe_Race%20and%20Immigration%20Report%20v2.pdf">targets of the immigration debate</a>. Ethnic minorities are the worst affected by stringent immigration policies and stigmatised by anti-immigration language. </p>
<p>Perceptions of migrants in relation to worth and value continue to be <a href="https://migration.bristol.ac.uk/2021/05/11/racism-and-the-uks-immigration-system/">influenced by class and race</a>. The current system, which depends on a hierarchy of immigrants by “skill”, means mostly white, university-educated and English-speaking migrants are <a href="https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/dqjh8rbx2e/InternalResults_180425_Immigration.pdf">consistently viewed more favourably</a> than black, Asian and Muslim migrants. </p>
<p>And public opinion is far warmer <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2022/07/12/are-attitudes-ukrainian-refugees-unique">towards Ukrainian refugees</a> compared with those also fleeing war in Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan and Somalia.</p>
<p>Minority ethnic voters also perceived <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2023.2205499">racial undertones</a> in the anti-immigrant language used by the Leave campaign during Brexit. But while most voted Remain, <a href="https://ukandeu.ac.uk/minority-ethnic-attitudes-and-the-2016-eu-referendum/">some minority ethnic Brexit voters supported Leave</a> in opposition to immigration from eastern Europe. </p>
<p>As with minority ethnic politicians calling for harsh border policies, immigrant status or family history is no guarantee of liberal attitudes to immigration or asylum.</p>
<p>Of course, this analysis does not apply to every minority ethnic politician. It is heartening to see other Conservatives speaking out about the inflammatory anti-migrant climate. Mohammed Amin, a former chair of the Conservative Muslim Forum, described Braverman’s rhetoric as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/17/minorities-join-tories-suella-braverman-boris-johnson">“disgusting”</a>. </p>
<p>But it is important to remember that ethnic diversity is not racial justice, nor can it protect the government from challenges to its harmful policies. As Baroness Sayeeda Warsi <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/12/suella-braverman-diversity-cabinet-british-pakistani-men-rishi-sunak">noted</a>: “Braverman’s own ethnic origin has shielded her from criticism for too long.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206885/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Politicians like Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman act as a symbol of diversity while advocating for policies that harm minority ethnic groups.Neema Begum, Assistant Professor in British Politics, University of NottinghamMichael Bankole, PhD Candidate, Department of Political Economy, King's College LondonRima Saini, Senior Lecturer, Middlesex UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2064752023-06-01T10:01:42Z2023-06-01T10:01:42ZWhat does high immigration mean for the government’s popularity? What data on voting habits tells us<p>The news from the Office of National Statistics that net migration reached a record high of 606,000 in 2022 is likely to have <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-65669832">embarrassed the government</a>, particularly the home secretary, Suella Braverman. For years, successive prime ministers have promised <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-on-immigration">reductions in net migration</a>, but without much success in delivering them.</p>
<p>But do these numbers actually mean anything for a government hoping to win an election?</p>
<p>The public is divided in its attitudes to immigration in Britain. That said, more people have a favourable view of immigration than have an unfavourable view. This was apparent in a <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2022-03/attitudes-towards-immigration-british-future-ipsos-march-2022.pdf">recent survey</a> conducted by Ipsos on behalf of the think tank British Future. The survey showed that 46% of respondents had a positive view of immigration and 29% had a negative view, with 18% not sure about the issue. The remaining 7% said they didn’t know how they felt.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/brexit-why-britain-voted-leave-european-union">our recent book</a> my colleagues and I modelled the determinants of voting behaviour in the 2019 general election and found that immigration played no direct role in influencing the vote. Rather, the election was dominated by the popularity of the party leaders, party loyalty, the state of the economy and also the Brexit issue.</p>
<p>If we look at the actual net migration numbers over time and compare it with support for the governing party, the relationship between them is positive, not negative. As the chart below shows, as the number of immigrants increases, so do voting intentions for the governing party. The correlation between the two is fairly strong (r = 0.49), and it applies to both Labour and Conservative governments.</p>
<p><strong>Voting intentions for the government, net migration and the unemployment rate in Britain (quarterly data 2006-2019)</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A chart showing positive correlation between government popularity and net migration from 2006 to 2020" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529346/original/file-20230531-27-7hg2mt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529346/original/file-20230531-27-7hg2mt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529346/original/file-20230531-27-7hg2mt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529346/original/file-20230531-27-7hg2mt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529346/original/file-20230531-27-7hg2mt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529346/original/file-20230531-27-7hg2mt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529346/original/file-20230531-27-7hg2mt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Whiteley, ONS and YouGov data</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We know that very high rates of immigration put a considerable strain on public services such as the NHS, education and housing. In addition, all the political parties and the public worry about it – though public concern about immigration has <a href="https://ukandeu.ac.uk/immigration-and-public-opinion-more-than-a-numbers-game/">declined in recent years</a>.</p>
<p>One clue to the puzzle of the positive link between immigration and government support lies in the state of the economy, in this case measured by the rate of unemployment. There is a negative relationship between unemployment and net migration into Britain (r = -0.29). In other words, as immigration increases over time, unemployment declines. </p>
<p>This is not surprising, since when Britain was a member of the European Union many workers came from the EU, particularly from eastern Europe, attracted by plentiful jobs and high pay compared with their home countries. We have recently seen the consequences for the UK job market of these workers leaving Britain after Brexit. Many positions are currently not being filled, causing shortages in the shops and adding to inflation.</p>
<p>The chart shows that unemployment rose after the start of the global financial crisis in 2008. By 2010, when the worse effects were over, net migration rapidly increased. But the government did not lose support as a result, and its popularity started to increase in 2014. The effects of the Brexit referendum are apparent in the chart as well, since net migration fell rather dramatically after the vote to leave in 2016. But during this period, government popularity did not really increase. </p>
<p>Several studies have examined the effects of immigration on employment and the wages of existing workers, and most have found either small or no effects. The Migration Advisory Committee, an independent body which advises government on immigration policies, reviewed the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/741926/Final_EEA_report.PDF">results of recent studies</a> in 2018, and concluded that immigration did not lead existing workers to lose their jobs, and had little impact on wages.</p>
<p>People may be increasingly relaxed about legal immigration partly because it does not have damaging economic effects. But they are not as relaxed about illegal immigration.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A Border Force boat carrying a small number of people in orange life vests." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528587/original/file-20230526-5088-q7wgc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528587/original/file-20230526-5088-q7wgc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528587/original/file-20230526-5088-q7wgc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528587/original/file-20230526-5088-q7wgc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528587/original/file-20230526-5088-q7wgc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528587/original/file-20230526-5088-q7wgc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528587/original/file-20230526-5088-q7wgc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People are less relaxed about small boat crossings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/dover-kent-uk-april-30th-2022-2151230929">Sean Aidan Calderbank/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is important to recognise that the issue of immigration overall is different from that of people arriving illegally, although they are often conflated in public conversations. A recent YouGov poll showed that the public has a more negative attitude to asylum seekers <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2022/11/09/channel-crossings-rise-where-do-britons-stand-asyl">crossing the channel</a> than towards immigration in general. </p>
<p>Asylum seekers who arrive on small boats are often perceived as a threat to the security of the country and so invoke fear and anxiety among voters. There is a wealth of academic literature showing that <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/%20book/chicago/A/bo5471683.html">negative emotions such as fear, anger and anxiety</a> have powerful impacts on political attitudes and contribute to the growth in support for populism.</p>
<p>The upshot is that if incumbent parties want to be reelected they should focus on curbing irregular arrivals, while at the same time stressing the cultural and economic benefits of immigration. The government is <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-governments-plan-to-remove-asylum-seekers-will-be-a-logistical-mess-and-may-not-deter-people-from-coming-to-the-uk-201248">struggling to address this</a>, and their repeated failure to deal with the issue is hurting their credibility. </p>
<p>Labour will inherit this issue if elected next year, and may have an opportunity to reset policies in this area. But without a credible plan to deal with illegal migration, they will face the <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/trackers/which-political-party-would-be-the-best-at-handling-asylum-and-immigration">same problem</a> as the current government.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206475/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Whiteley has received funding from the British Academy and the ESRC. </span></em></p>The relationship between net migration and support for the governing party is positive.Paul Whiteley, Professor, Department of Government, University of EssexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2064292023-05-26T17:00:01Z2023-05-26T17:00:01ZHow did ‘taking back control’ of borders become record-high net migration?<p>Prime minister Rishi Sunak has described the UK’s new immigration figures, showing over 600,000 net migration for the year ending December 2022, as “too high”. While revised estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show this rate is <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/bulletins/longterminternationalmigrationprovisional/yearendingdecember2022">actually the same</a> as it was for the year ending June 2022, this figure is a record.</p>
<p>There are some obvious reasons why the numbers are up, such as “unprecedented world events throughout 2022”, as the <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/bulletins/longterminternationalmigrationprovisional/yearendingdecember2022">ONS points to</a>, and the lifting of pandemic travel restrictions. Special visa routes for people from Ukraine and Hong Kong contributed 172,000 people, and over 200,000 are international students and their dependants. </p>
<p>Who the figures include and exclude massively affects the total, and is, to some extent, arbitrary. For example, net migration could be reduced by a third with a simple swipe of the pen if the government did what <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/education/rishi-sunak-remove-international-students-uk-migration-figures-pledge-2366393">some Conservative MPs have argued</a> and removed international students from the figures (they tend to stay short term, and most leave at the end of their studies). People seeking asylum are now included (adding 72,000 to the total), but seasonal agricultural workers (38,000 visas in 2022) are excluded. </p>
<p>Regardless of how the figures are cut, the level of net migration is far higher than the “tens of thousands” promised by David Cameron, and seems set to stay that way for the foreseeable future. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/net-migration-how-an-unreachable-target-came-to-shape-britain-206430">Net migration: how an unreachable target came to shape Britain</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It’s notable that these figures come just years after government promises to “take back control” of the UK’s borders. One of Brexit’s aims was stopping free movement from the rest of the EU. On this we can see fairly direct impacts in the latest figures, with less migration from the EU and even net outflows of European citizens. </p>
<p>The trade off, which immigration experts understood at the time, was that this would naturally be offset by <a href="https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/trade-migration-and-brexit">more immigration from non-EU countries</a>. That is exactly what has happened, although the increase has been higher than expected due to significant growth in numbers of <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/commentaries/why-has-non-eu-migration-to-the-uk-risen/">international students and work visas</a>.</p>
<p>The “new normal” may be that the work-based component of migration is around 200,000 per year, but that is open to change. Much of this is currently related to shortages in the UK labour market, for example in the NHS and social care.</p>
<p>So while Sunak says the numbers must come down, things are actually working more or less as intended, in the interests of UK businesses and the economy. The increased recruitment of non-EU workers is filling gaps in the labour market and bringing in fees which can run to thousands of pounds. </p>
<p>The gap here is a familiar one for those who follow the immigration debate – between the rhetoric of politicians around reducing immigration, and the reality of an economy which will consistently draw in new workers each year. The numbers are what you might expect <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/immigration-by-country">compared to other countries with similar sized economies</a>.</p>
<h2>Quality of work</h2>
<p>For migrants themselves, it’s a different story. The benefits of free movement were not only for UK businesses – equal rights meant better protections for EU workers who came to the UK, and the ability for labour to circulate freely. </p>
<p>The new system is a return to old-style visas that are costly and restrictive. They restrict worker rights – to move employers, or to have access to public services – all things that make migrants more vulnerable to exploitation. Indeed, the problems are already becoming clear in the agricultural sector where the <a href="https://freemovement.org.uk/seasonal-workers-face-ongoing-exploitation-as-government-shows-little-interest-in-enforcement/">evidence of exploitation is growing</a>. </p>
<p>Commentators often accuse those who support continued immigration at the level the UK is seeing as being <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/21/britain-must-take-back-control-kick-addiction-immigration/">“addicted to cheap labour”</a>, or avoiding the training of UK workers. But the addiction is actually to a labour market which has little or no protection for workers, and no strategy to improve standards and the quality of work. This has implications for everyone. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Close up of a person's hand holding a paper copy of a Uk Visas and immigration application, over a world map in the background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528609/original/file-20230526-25-9nriuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528609/original/file-20230526-25-9nriuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528609/original/file-20230526-25-9nriuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528609/original/file-20230526-25-9nriuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528609/original/file-20230526-25-9nriuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528609/original/file-20230526-25-9nriuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528609/original/file-20230526-25-9nriuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The post-Brexit return to old style visas could mean higher costs, complex applications and fewer protections for workers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cape-town-south-africa-may-02-1720231309">MD_Photography/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The post-Brexit immigration system has been constructed in a piecemeal and ad hoc fashion. While this looks like it benefits the UK economy, it is short term, further segments the labour market, <a href="https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journals/jpsj/30/2/article-p120.xml">criminalises informal work</a>, and opens large numbers of people to the <a href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/rhm/article/view/176707">risks of exploitation</a> and modern slavery. </p>
<p>The new illegal migration bill, following on from the Nationality and Borders Act, makes things worse by eroding what little protection had been put in place through the system to <a href="https://modernslaverypec.org/resources/migration-bill-explainer">address modern slavery</a>. </p>
<p>Ultimately, the lesson from previous waves of immigration is that what begins as temporary often becomes permanent, and the consequences can be long lasting. Short-term “fixes” for the labour market are not just about giving businesses what they want – they are bringing migrants, and sometimes their families, who all need and deserve equal treatment. </p>
<p>The kneejerk reaction this time has been to announce that international students will lose their <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/news/international-students-no-longer-able-bring-dependants-uk-student-visas">right to bring dependants</a>. The UK’s approach to migration has always been more about “firm” than “fair”, with a number of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/may/06/at-least-1000-highly-skilled-migrants-wrongly-face-deportation-experts-reveal">broken promises</a> along the way. And <a href="https://www.jcwi.org.uk/windrush-scandal-explained">the Windrush scandal</a> has shown what happens when, in the rush to fix labour market gaps, human rights are not included in the cost-benefit analysis.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206429/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Balch has received funding for research on immigration and efforts to address forced labour and human trafficking from a range of organisations including the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and British Academy. </span></em></p>After Brexit, the UK has had fewer migrants from the EU, but they have been far outstripped by people coming from elsewhere.Alex Balch, Professor, Department of Politics, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2064302023-05-26T13:45:20Z2023-05-26T13:45:20ZNet migration: how an unreachable target came to shape Britain<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528550/original/file-20230526-5088-ui1pvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C131%2C3994%2C2000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-may-9-2019-air-1445235923">1000 Words/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>New data shows that the UK has hit a <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/bulletins/longterminternationalmigrationprovisional/yearendingdecember2022">record high</a> net migration number of 606,000. Through it has been central to 13 years of policy and rhetoric, net migration is, in fact, a pretty odd metric that tells us very little about how the UK’s immigration system is functioning. </p>
<p>Net migration is the difference between the number of people entering the country (and expected to stay long term) and the number leaving. So net migration of +1 could be achieved by two people leaving the country and three people moving here, or by ten million people leaving the country and ten million and one moving here. The practical difference between these two scenarios is, of course, huge.</p>
<p>Net migration numbers tell us nothing about what sort of people UK businesses want to employ, how the different migrant groups who are arriving or leaving affect the economy, or the communities they join (or leave). It only really tells us one thing: how migration affects the overall size of the population. </p>
<p>Until 2010, the UK debate generally focused on the number of people arriving – and on the idea that immigration presented a problem. But in January of that year, then opposition leader David Cameron, on a mission to detoxify the Conservative reputation as “the nasty party,” made a key rhetorical shift. He promised to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/14/david-cameron-toxic-migration-pledge-decade">bring net migration</a> – a metric usually only of interest to data nerds and researchers – down to the “tens of thousands”.</p>
<p>This moved the debate away from a focus on immigrants themselves, and instead to a technocratic idea – a number that could be controlled. It introduced the concept that there was a “right amount” of migration to and from the country (less than 100,000), and framed migration as simply a matter of balancing the books. </p>
<p>This was a big PR win in the short term. Journalists could talk about whether the government was achieving a target, rather than the array of more complex metrics that might indicate whether migration policy was delivering economic or social benefits. It arguably also helped Cameron to be elected prime minister.</p>
<p>But the reality was (and still is) that government only has limited control over who comes and goes. </p>
<p>Demands from businesses and universities to allow key people to come to the UK, and from people whose loved ones lived overseas, needed to be catered for. British people and (at the time) EU citizens could come and go as they pleased, and economic or political issues outside the UK were out of government’s control.</p>
<h2>A moving target</h2>
<p>The coalition years were dominated by this promise to hit the net migration target by the 2015 election. Between 2011 and 2012, Theresa May as home secretary introduced policies to <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/commentaries/imposing-caps-filling-gaps-or-charging-tax-how-should-we-control-labour-immigration/">cap skilled non-EU labour migration</a> and close “bogus colleges” and <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/commentaries/international-students-a-or-d-for-the-uk/">cut abuse of study migration visas</a>. </p>
<p>She also <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/commentaries/love-and-money-how-immigration-policy-discriminates-between-families/">created a minimum income threshold</a> for people bringing a spouse or other family member to live with them, and aimed to “<a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/commentaries/unsettling-challenges-with-using-changes-in-settlement-policy-to-reduce-net-migration/">break the link between immigration and settlement</a>”.</p>
<p>But the target was always unrealistic. Within a year, my colleagues and I at the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford had <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/commentaries/off-target-government-policies-are-not-on-track-to-reducing-net-migration-to-the-tens-of-thousands-by-2015/">established</a> that the government’s own impact assessments showed the net migration target could not be met based on the policies that had been introduced. Equally, membership of the EU and free movement meant that the UK had little control over overall levels of migration.</p>
<p>As the 2015 election neared, the magnitude of the failure to meet the target was becoming obvious. A relatively thriving economy and subsequent job creation had helped push net migration over the 300,000 mark. The issue was electoral kryptonite for both Conservatives and Labour, and strengthened Nigel Farage’s then rampant UKIP.</p>
<p>In the end, Cameron secured a surprise majority after a promise to hold a referendum on EU membership. The party reiterated its promise to hit the net migration target, now referred to as an “ambition”, while Cameron campaigned to remain in the EU.</p>
<p>But promises to cut migration while staying committed to free movement began to look increasingly mealymouthed. Director of the Vote Leave campaign Dominic Cummings attributed victory in the Brexit campaign to <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/dominic-cummings-how-the-brexit-referendum-was-won/">the focus on migration</a>. </p>
<p>It also led Cameron to resign. And when Theresa May took over as prime minister, her administration continued to commit itself to the net migration target, including it in her <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2017-39972745">election manifesto</a>. </p>
<p>This time, it was economics rather than policy that pushed net numbers down. The referendum dented the confidence of the international finance markets, and the pound plummeted in value against the Euro, the Zloty and other currencies. </p>
<p>Migrants in the UK, particularly those sending money home to their families, <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/commentaries/pounded-currency-devaluation-migration-uk/">were earning less</a>. Meanwhile the Eurozone was recovering from a years-long slump, with job creation in other EU member states. This combination is thought to be the main driver of a sharp fall in EU net migration to the UK, particularly from the new member states.</p>
<h2>Caught in their own net</h2>
<p>When Boris Johnson stepped in as prime minister, the net migration target was killed off, to be replaced by a somewhat vague new concept: the “Australian-style <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/reports/the-australian-points-based-system-what-is-it-and-what-would-its-impact-be-in-the-uk/">points based system</a>”. </p>
<p>He continued to suggest this would deliver lower numbers, but with attention elsewhere and net migration lower than before the referendum, nobody seemed keen for a return to Cameron’s “balancing the books”.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the net migration target was hit by accident. It turned out that all that was needed was a global pandemic. </p>
<p>But Johnson’s “have your cake and eat it” post-Brexit policymaking – which has continued under Rishi Sunak – planted the seeds for a new net migration panic. </p>
<p>Under Johnson and Sunak, vague promises to cut net migration have been coupled with a significant liberalisation of the immigration system, most notably in the form of humanitarian visa routes for people leaving Ukraine and Hong Kong. These have made up a significant share of the record-high increase reflected in the latest numbers.</p>
<p>Additionally, relaxations of visa rules for non-EU workers, such as making care workers eligible for long-term work visas and reintroducing post-study work for international students, received significant take-up.</p>
<p>The public has largely supported many of these policies, and concerns about migration (apart from small boat arrivals, which contribute only a small percentage of net migration) have been relatively low for some time. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two women at a march holding a handful of small Ukrainian flags" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528579/original/file-20230526-27-43j92d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528579/original/file-20230526-27-43j92d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528579/original/file-20230526-27-43j92d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528579/original/file-20230526-27-43j92d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528579/original/file-20230526-27-43j92d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528579/original/file-20230526-27-43j92d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528579/original/file-20230526-27-43j92d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The British public have largely been supportive of humanitarian visas for people leaving Ukraine, Afghanistan and Hong Kong.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-26th-march-2022-anti-2152821913">John Gomez/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But despite this, the media and policy response to the 606,000 number suggests that once again these numbers – though likely to be temporary – are causing serious concerns.</p>
<p>Conservatives still appear to regard control of migration as a key policy area on which they can win against Labour. But the party may wish that David Cameron had never opened Pandora’s box with his simplistic target. </p>
<p>Indeed, Rishi Sunak’s response has been to sidestep targets, while reiterating that the number is <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/rishi-sunak-office-for-national-statistics-prime-minister-yvette-cooper-robert-jenrick-b2345623.html">“too high”</a>.</p>
<p>Now that the public has been introduced to the problematic concept of the “right amount” of net migration, the government may simply have to accept that it has been caught in its own net.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206430/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rob McNeil has recently received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, and will shortly be starting work on a project that is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. He is also a trustee of the Work Rights Centre, which supports disadvantaged Britons' and migrants' access to employment justice. </span></em></p>Net migration numbers tell us little about the effectiveness of migration policy.Rob McNeil, Researcher, Centre on Migration Policy and Society (COMPAS), Deputy Director, Migration Observatory, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2038712023-05-02T11:20:36Z2023-05-02T11:20:36ZAlbania’s developing tourism industry could help stop its young people from leaving – and boost its economy<p>It has been more than 30 years since Albania <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-09-23-tr-1450-story.html">opened its doors</a> to tourists, but telling a friend that you’re off to Tirana or Dhërmi for a long weekend might still raise some eyebrows. </p>
<p>Despite Albania making Lonely Planet’s 2023 <a href="https://www.lonelyplanet.com/best-in-travel">best in travel</a> list, and various travel <a href="https://medium.com/jubel-co/why-you-should-visit-albania-the-mediterraneans-hidden-gem-91bc33d4b36a">specialists</a> referring to the country as the Mediterranean’s “hidden gem” because of its pristine coastline and wildlife, Albania remains one of the <a href="https://www.unwto.org/tourism-data/global-and-regional-tourism-performance">least visited countries in Europe</a>.</p>
<p>Despite its small size, Albania’s varied landscape offers an array of touristic opportunities. Its Adriatic coastline is home to beautiful beaches, not yet spoilt by hordes of visitors. </p>
<p>The interior of the country is wild and mountainous, boasting <a href="https://albania.al/destinations/national-parks/">15 national parks</a>, picturesque remote villages and breathtaking alpine scenery. At the crossroads of various Mediterranean, Balkan and Ottoman empires, as well as having a history of <a href="https://albania.al/activity/culture/communism-legacy/">communist rule</a>, Albanian culture is a mixture of European and Middle Eastern influences, which remains evident in its cuisine and architecture. </p>
<p>So could tourism be an economic saviour for Albania and mediate the migration of its young people? Although visitor numbers are on the rise, the country is facing economic difficulties. </p>
<p>There are now “ghost towns” throughout the country. Kukësi in the north of Albania has seen more <a href="https://theconversation.com/albanias-ghost-towns-the-crisis-that-caused-the-exodus-194003">than 53% of its citizens leave</a>, with reports showing that young people feel there are few <a href="https://balkaninsight.com/2019/11/14/the-clock-ticks-for-albanias-demographic-dividend/">opportunities for them</a>. </p>
<p>According to a 2021 <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/468218/nearly-900-million-worldwide-wanted-migrate-2021.aspx">Gallup</a> poll, 50% of Albanian adults wanted to move abroad, with unemployment, low wages and lack of opportunities being listed as <a href="https://europeanwesternbalkans.com/2018/12/25/brain-drain-important-migration-issue-western-balkans/">main reasons</a>. </p>
<p>In 2022, the <a href="https://www.undp.org/sites/g/files/zskgke326/files/2022-12/HOSPITALITY%20AND%20TOURISM%20IN%20ALBANIA_FINAL.pdf">United Nations Development Programme</a> assessed Albania’s tourism trends and performance, finding that mass emigration is a significant challenge to the country’s tourism development. Around 75% of the hotels polled claimed that in peak season they would need at least 35% more employees than they are currently able to find. </p>
<p>Industry professionals in Albania feel that infrastructure, waste management and transport links are not at the level required to attract a large number of tourists. </p>
<h2>Transformation through tourism</h2>
<p>Many countries have used tourism for <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-tourism-alleviate-global-poverty-76581">economic development</a>. After the second world war, tourism became a crucial way for many poorer Mediterranean countries to kickstart their economies. </p>
<p>In 1951, the Greek National Tourism Organisation embarked on a nationwide development initiative to construct tourist facilities across the country, <a href="http://www.jotr.eu/pdf_files/V17.pdf#page=265">the Xenia project</a>. Renowned Greek architect <a href="https://modernminute.net/2018/07/25/aris-konstantinidis-greek-regional-modernist/">Aris Konstantinidis</a> was enlisted to design dozens of hotels, bars, souvenir shops and other attractions across the country, in the minimalist whitewashed style Greece is renowned for. </p>
<p>Greece’s image was transformed into a <a href="https://www.cntraveler.com/story/how-the-greek-islands-became-one-of-the-worlds-biggest-tourist-destinations">hub for international travellers</a>. At the start of the project, Greece hosted just 33,000 tourists a year – by the 1960s, that figure had increased by 1,098%. Today, tourism accounts for one-fifth of its economy.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/albanias-ghost-towns-the-crisis-that-caused-the-exodus-194003">Albania's ghost towns: the crisis that caused the exodus</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A similar strategy was used in Spain. An impoverished, isolated state at the end of the second world war, tourism transformed the Spanish economy. Not only did tourism provide an invaluable source of foreign currency, but the sudden influx of foreign visitors undermined the Franco regime’s grip on the country. </p>
<p>The arrival of international visitors sparked a <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230592643_3">cultural transformation</a>, as ordinary Spaniards interacted with tourists they began to question and challenge the authoritarian control of Franco’s government. The introduction of tourism is often cited as the catalyst to the toppling of the authoritarian regime. </p>
<p>A growth in Albania’s tourism might offer young people alternative opportunities to those they seek by leaving their home nation. Travel and tourism employ more young people (14- to 25-year-olds) than any other sector, according to <a href="https://wttc.org/Portals/0/Documents/Reports/2019/Social%20Impact-Generating%20Jobs%20for%20Youth-Jan%202019.pdf?ver=2021-02-25-182754-083">a World Travel and Tourism Council study</a>. </p>
<p>And in tourism-dependent countries, jobs tend to become full time and permanent, appealing to people looking for financial stability.</p>
<h2>Stunning landscapes</h2>
<p>Albania has many of the elements required to become a successful tourist destination. It’s a beautiful country with good food and a wonderful summer climate. In 2022, a <a href="https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/real-life/tiktok-trend-sends-holidaymakers-unexpected-24762608">TikTok</a> trend sparked a boom in tourist bookings after people posted images of its stunning beaches. </p>
<p>But there are some challenges. For small and underdeveloped destinations like Albania, which may not have the infrastructure required to extensively develop tourism alone, help from outside investors is necessary - and that can come with its own issues. </p>
<p>While mass tourism can bring tourists, new hotels and restaurants, if developments are not locally owned the financial rewards may have limited benefit to the local economy, although they still provide jobs.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://wttc.org/Portals/0/Documents/Reports/2022/Travel-and-tourism-in-the-caribbean.pdf">World Travel and Tourism Council</a> found that the Caribbean’s tourism sector suffered from economic leakage of 27.5% in 2019. Journalist <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1hj5816">Polly Pattullo</a> said that on some islands this figure could be as high as 90%. </p>
<p>This means that this tourism-generated revenue leaves the Caribbean and does not contribute to the economy, due to hotels and tour operators being owned and controlled by foreign companies. </p>
<p>Perhaps Albania could take inspiration from neighbouring Montenegro, which seems to be successfully welcoming tourism. Like Albania, it is not a member of the EU, and has struggled with economic development. </p>
<p>The country has positioned itself as a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02757206.2012.759111">niche</a> destination. Tourism now accounts for <a href="https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/montenegro-tourism-0#:%7E:text=Montenegro's%20300%2Dkilometer%2Dlong%20coastline,scale%20tourism%20and%20hospitality%20centers.">around 25%</a> of Montenegro’s GDP (compared to <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/europeandcentralasia/tourism-20-albania-new-opportunity-resilient-growth">around 8%</a> in Albania).</p>
<p>Albania has <a href="https://balkaninsight.com/2019/11/14/the-clock-ticks-for-albanias-demographic-dividend/">a falling birthrate</a>, and a struggling economy. For decades, the country sealed its population inside its borders, but these days many young people are desperate to leave. But an improvement in economic prosperity and jobs in the tourism industry might be a significant factor in changing that, if managed well.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203871/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ross Bennett-Cook does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Albania has a falling birthrate and few jobs for young people.Ross Bennett-Cook, Visiting Lecturer, School of Architecture + Cities, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2022762023-04-11T01:41:21Z2023-04-11T01:41:21Z‘It’s like you’re a criminal, but I am not a criminal.’ First-hand accounts of the trauma of being stuck in the UK asylum system<p><em>Warning: this story contains graphic descriptions of violence. Pseudonyms are used to protect the interviewees’ identities.</em></p>
<p>Angela had already been in the UK as an asylum seeker for nine years and four months when we interviewed her. She was still in a state of limbo, unsure whether asylum would be granted, and her story was disturbing to hear.</p>
<p>Angela told us she had left Nigeria after an appalling terrorist attack. Her father was a high-ranking regional politician, a Christian in a mainly Muslim area. Following a political dispute, the family compound was attacked by members of the militant Islamist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boko_Haram">Boko Haram</a> organisation. Angela told us that her father, her husband and others were killed – and that she was shot at, raped, beaten and left for dead:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was raped not one, not two, not three … I can’t remember how many times. The shocking thing is the person – I remember his face – who chopped my husband’s legs is still very much alive. He comes on social media almost every day.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Angela is one of 12 asylum seekers and refugees from Africa and the Middle East we interviewed for <a href="https://eprints.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/id/eprint/6557/">a study</a> published in 2020. We wanted to examine not only the experiences that drove them to the UK, but also the psychological effects of their subsequent experiences in the UK’s asylum system. </p>
<p>These accounts bear revisiting amid current widespread concerns about the <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/uks-asylum-backlog-tops-160-000-for-first-time-since-current-records-began-12817733">record numbers</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/apr/01/death-of-detainee-near-heathrow-prompts-immigration-detention-crisis-fears">welfare</a> and <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/inside-the-asylum-hotel-16-months-and-no-end-in-sight-92sw66xq7">experiences</a> of asylum seekers detained in the UK immigration system.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>This article is part of Conversation Insights</em></strong>
<br><em>The Insights team generates <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">long-form journalism</a> derived from interdisciplinary research. The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Like all the women and men we spoke to, Angela now lives in West Yorkshire. A decade after the attack on her home in Nigeria, she told us she was still having regular flashbacks and experiencing severe trauma. She probably wouldn’t have survived the attack without the help of an elderly couple from a nearby village, who initially cared for her. But incredibly, this wasn’t the end of her ordeal. </p>
<p>The couple contacted their daughter in Lagos and arranged for Angela to travel there, where they thought it would be safer. But when she had medical treatment in the city, members of a Boko Haram cell became aware of her presence and attacked the hospital. She escaped unharmed – but when the elderly couple’s daughter collected her, the car was shot at and their daughter was killed. Angela told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I had to pretend I was dead as well because there was blood all over the car. I think that’s when they stopped shooting, because they thought I was dead.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As she talked, Angela pointed to a scar on her calf caused by one of the bullets. It was one of many scars all over her body that offered graphic evidence of her traumatic experiences in Nigeria. Despite this, when a friend of her father’s arranged a UK visa for her, she was only thinking in terms of a temporary stay:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I didn’t seek asylum at first because it didn’t even cross my head. I never thought I’d end up living in the UK.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Taken into detention</h2>
<p>Once she reached the UK, Angela hoped her suffering would be over. For the next ten years, she lived in a variety of detention centres, hostels and shared houses in different towns and cities around the UK. For most of this time, she survived on food vouchers and the help of charities and refugee support organisations.</p>
<p>Asylum seekers currently receive a maximum <a href="https://www.refugee-action.org.uk/asylum-support-inflation/#:%7E:text=On%2021%20December%202022%2C%20the,the%20legal%20obligation%20to%20be%20'%E2%80%A6">allowance</a> of £45 per week, compared with £77 for those on unemployment benefit. If asylum seekers live in accommodation that provides food (such as a hotel), this <a href="https://fullfact.org/immigration/hotel-asylum-seekers/">drops to</a> to £8.24 per week to cover clothes, non-prescription medication and travel.</p>
<p>Angela was sometimes unable to find a solicitor, so had to represent herself at court hearings and appeals. But since her cousin in Nigeria was a barrister and her mother had a law degree, she adapted to this role quickly – describing how her encounters in court “brought out the boldness, the lioness in me”. She recalled telling one judge:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I had a beautiful life in Nigeria and it’s not something I would ever [give up] in my wildest dreams … For the Home Office representative to grate me down to rock bottom – I will not take it … I won’t come here and start fabricating lies because I want to stay in the United Kingdom.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A few months before we spoke, after almost a decade in the asylum system, Angela was served with a deportation notice and redetained. She told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>That was worse than the first time because there was a very hopeless situation. I had no case anymore. All my appeals, everything, court hearing, everything, had been dismissed, refused.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Angela was desperate, aware of the danger she would face on her return to Nigeria. A friend advised her to contact <a href="https://medicaljustice.org.uk/what-we-do/">Medical Justice</a>, a charity that supports victims of torture in immigration detention. It found her a lawyer who made a last-minute legal intervention – and she was reprieved:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My ticket was supposed to be for the 25th of May, and it was cancelled on the 24th – ten o’clock in the night … I just ran to the room and rolled on the floor like I was going crazy. It was such a shock.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Victims of torture</h2>
<p>We didn’t seek out traumatised individuals for our research, nor people who had been subject to torture. Yet all 12 who we interviewed described highly traumatic experiences before coming to the UK, including several accounts of torture. Given the sensitivity of their cases, our interviews were all conducted under the condition of strict anonymity.</p>
<p>Gloria had been living in the UK for three years – the shortest time of all our study’s participants – having arrived from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a country in the grip of civil war and conflict for decades. Gloria described how her home was attacked by an armed group who abducted both her and her brother. He was killed; she was raped and tortured.</p>
<p>Gloria was vague about how she had arrived in the UK, telling us: “I was brought here by someone … I had tortures and then someone helped me to flee and come to here.”</p>
<p>She hoped she had reached a safe haven but was put straight into detention, despite her traumatised state. Like Angela, the multiple scars on her body bore witness to the torture she had experienced. Yet she told us in her halting English:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Detention is not just detention – it is prison … It’s like you’re a criminal, but I am not a criminal. I am in trouble. I am sick but I go in the prison … In the detention, I never ate. I was just crying [and I thought:] “It’s better maybe they kill me even here.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Gloria’s account came soon after a <a href="https://www.freedomfromtorture.org/what-we-do/asylum-and-rights/decision-making/proving-torture/report-proving-torture">report by Freedom From Torture</a> found that the Home Office would sometimes reject the evidence of scars from torture on the grounds that these might be self-inflicted wounds. This changed in 2019 when the <a href="https://ukhumanrightsblog.com/2019/03/15/self-inflicted-torture-by-proxy-inherently-unlikely/">UK Supreme Court declared</a> that self-inflicted torture was “inherently unlikely”.</p>
<p>A supportive solicitor fought for Gloria’s release from detention, and she was moved to a hostel in Leeds, then one in Wakefield. Her solicitor organised an appeal for asylum, but it was rejected after a few months.</p>
<p>Gloria told us she was then coerced into signing a form agreeing to her deportation after being denied an interpreter – despite <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-part-11-asylum">immigration rules</a> stating that interpreters are available to all asylum seekers, free of charge, whenever necessary. Her claim of coercion is in line with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/feb/02/border-staff-asylum-seekers-whistleblower">historical allegations</a> made of some Home Office officials. Refugee organisations also highlighted to us other cases of asylum seekers reporting that they had been tricked or forced into signing <a href="https://www.gov.uk/return-home-voluntarily">“voluntary return” forms</a>.</p>
<p>Gloria told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was not able to understand or to speak English well. I told them there [should] be an interpreter because I’m not going to understand. They said: “No, it’s not the big interview” … Then they give me the papers to sign. They just said: “We need to put your status, that you are Congolese, in your documents.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When Gloria was finally allowed to read the text translated into French, she realised it related to “travelling documents to take me back and deport me. But they didn’t tell me that. They told me it was for my nationality.”</p>
<p>After this Gloria was taken into detention again, until her solicitor managed to free her and put her in contact with <a href="https://www.freedomfromtorture.org/what-we-do">Freedom From Torture</a>, a charity supporting torture survivors in the UK. It arranged a medical examination including photographs of her scars, which enabled her to make another appeal for asylum which, at the time we spoke, was still ongoing.</p>
<p>Gloria told us she had made a mistake coming to the UK, due to the hostility she encountered from the Home Office and the constant uncertainty, anxiety and stress she experienced in the asylum system. She said she had frequently contemplated suicide, even while out of detention and living in a hostel. Despite the horrors she had suffered in DRC, she told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I thought I come here to find refuge but … I’ve come to find worse problems for me.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>After their suffering, further trauma</h2>
<p>Having come to the UK to escape appalling suffering, all of our interviewees described experiencing further trauma while in the asylum system.</p>
<p>Between them, they highlighted a number of factors, including the protracted nature of the process, the perceived hostility of the Home Office, the traumatic effects of detention, a lack of control over their own lives, and the humiliation and frustration of being unable to work or contribute to UK society while seeking asylum here. (Asylum seekers cannot do paid work while their claims are being considered. They can do voluntary work as long as it does not interfere with their appointments and hearings.)</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519265/original/file-20230404-1198-k992e9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman waving in the window of a detention centre" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519265/original/file-20230404-1198-k992e9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519265/original/file-20230404-1198-k992e9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519265/original/file-20230404-1198-k992e9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519265/original/file-20230404-1198-k992e9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519265/original/file-20230404-1198-k992e9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519265/original/file-20230404-1198-k992e9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519265/original/file-20230404-1198-k992e9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman inside Yarl’s Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bedfordshire-uk-08-aug-2015-detainee-351707972">Pete Maclaine/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of the most protracted cases was Joy’s, an asylum seeker from Zimbabwe who had been trapped in the UK system for 14 years when we met her. She was a political activist who came to the UK to escape persecution after fellow activists in Zimbabwe had been arrested, abducted and tortured. She explained: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m one of the people at the forefront of campaigning against the human rights abuse that are happening in Zimbabwe … We have activists on the ground [there] who have suffered. They’ve been tortured, they’ve been beaten, they’ve been arrested. They are being abducted for voicing [against] what the government is doing.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Joy had left two young children in the care of her parents in Zimbabwe, hoping to return when it was safe. After her initial asylum claim was rejected, the Home Office ended Joy’s financial support and ordered her to move out of her accommodation. Her solicitor appealed the decision while she survived on weekly food parcels from the Red Cross.</p>
<p>In all, she had made four applications for asylum when we met her, all of which were beset by very long delays. In the most recent case, she told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The judge at the judicial review ruled the Home Office had made an error, and that they should go back and have a look at the case again … [But] the Home Office … just sort of copied-and-pasted the same refusal letter again – although this time they said I could appeal to the tribunal.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When we spoke, Joy was still hoping to return to Zimbabwe and see her children again, but knew the situation was too dangerous. After 14 years, she accepted the uncertainty of her life:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’ve come to a point where I … don’t want to keep on thinking of what if, what if, what if, what if? I will just take it as it comes. And then I will make a decision from there.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Home Office says it aims to process initial claims within six months, but in practice it takes much longer. For example, in November 2022, the <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/latest/news/home-affairs-select-committee-oral-evidence-on-channel-crossings-refugee-council-response/">Home Affairs Select Committee</a> revealed that, of all people who arrived in the UK by boat to claim asylum in 2021, <a href="https://righttoremain.org.uk/what-is-causing-the-huge-home-office-delay-in-processing-asylum-claims/">only 4%</a> had had their claims processed.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519281/original/file-20230404-20-h4sfhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Protesters outside a hotel" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519281/original/file-20230404-20-h4sfhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519281/original/file-20230404-20-h4sfhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519281/original/file-20230404-20-h4sfhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519281/original/file-20230404-20-h4sfhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519281/original/file-20230404-20-h4sfhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519281/original/file-20230404-20-h4sfhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519281/original/file-20230404-20-h4sfhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protesters outside the Beresford Hotel in Newquay, Cornwall, where around 200 refugees have been staying.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/newquay-cornwall-0225-beresford-hotel-protest-2267945293">J. Mundy/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Sleeping with fear’</h2>
<p>For all our interviewees, the protracted UK asylum process brought a constant sense of uncertainty, and the continual fear of sudden deportation. </p>
<p>Farah, from Iran, described awaiting a decision from the Home Office as “living fear for four years”. Fleeing persecution from the Islamic regime, she had paid for a smuggler to bring her into the UK by plane, along with her 11-year-old daughter.</p>
<p>In the UK, they lived in shared houses and hostels with other asylum seekers and refugees from a variety of countries. Farah said that every so often, Home Office officials would arrive to deport residents. She was constantly afraid that they would be next:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I couldn’t get out of the depression it made for me … I used to open my window to hear if [the immigration authorities] were coming … Imagine every single night, you are sleeping with fear. I was scared to open the door to people. I didn’t have confidence to go out.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But Farah was one of the lucky ones. After four years, her asylum appeal was accepted. In the seven years since then, her daughter has completed a university degree, while she has worked as a teaching assistant and in a variety of voluntary roles – most recently, as an interpreter at her local GP surgery.</p>
<p>Most of our participants expressed a strong desire to contribute to UK society while stuck within the asylum system. They found it intensely frustrating that they were unable to do so, since they weren’t allowed to work. Some are highly educated and professionally successful in their original countries, and were desperate to use their knowledge and expertise. As Farah put it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You need to contribute something … I’m not a parasite person. You know, I wanted to do something.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>According to Anne Burghgraef of <a href="https://www.solace-uk.org.uk/">Solace</a>, a Leeds-based organisation that offers mental health support for refugees and asylum seekers:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>People who come with great knowledge and expertise are forced into years of passivity. There are so many highly skilled people who just need to learn the language properly and adapt to the UK system.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Nevertheless, most of our participants strived to be of service to others within the limited environment of the refugee and asylum seeker community – for example, by volunteering as interpreters or organising social activities. In fact, our research highlighted this as an important coping strategy for our interviewees, to mitigate their ongoing anxiety and trauma.</p>
<h2>A hostile environment</h2>
<p>It is hard to imagine how any of the asylum seekers and refugees we spoke to would have coped – and in some cases, even survived – without the support of national and local organisations such as Solace. </p>
<p>In every case, our interviewees’ initial applications for asylum had been rejected. They quickly learned – either from fellow asylum seekers or legal advisers – that this was common practice, a ploy of deterring even the most valid claims. As another asylum seeker from Nigeria, Ebele, said of her initial rejection:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s part of the process – it’s like they want to stress people … They want [you] to think … that you can go back [home].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Leon had paid for a trafficker to take him to the UK from Guinea. From an affluent family, he was making a comfortable living as a businessman and owned several shops. However his father, a high-ranking soldier, had a dispute with government officials. Leon described government-sponsored thugs ransacking his shops, stealing his goods, then burning the shops to the ground.</p>
<p>On arrival in the UK, he was taken to a detention centre where he stayed for “three months and 11 days. And it was really bad for me, because I’d never been to jail in my life.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519284/original/file-20230404-14-y8wa7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Aerial view of Manston migrant processing centre in Kent" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519284/original/file-20230404-14-y8wa7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519284/original/file-20230404-14-y8wa7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519284/original/file-20230404-14-y8wa7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519284/original/file-20230404-14-y8wa7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519284/original/file-20230404-14-y8wa7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519284/original/file-20230404-14-y8wa7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519284/original/file-20230404-14-y8wa7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Manston migrant processing centre in Kent was closed after reports of severe overcrowding and the death of a migrant in November 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/migrants-wrapped-blankets-waiting-be-medically-2241997471">Edward Crawford/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After a lawyer helped Leon apply for asylum, he moved to temporary accommodation in Huddersfield and then Leeds. His initial application was processed within six months, and refused. He was instructed to leave his accommodation immediately, but had no money and no other options:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the winter, the Home Office told me to leave the house. I didn’t have anywhere to go. It was snowing everywhere. I had to go to stay in the park.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Shortly afterwards, Leon was beaten up and had his bag stolen:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[I lost] all my clothes. I didn’t have anything. The same clothes I was wearing. I didn’t have anywhere … I was crying.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Leon sought help from <a href="https://pafras.org.uk/">Pafras</a>, a Leeds-based asylum seekers charity which assigned him a case worker, gave him clothes, and found him temporary accommodation. He told us the Home Office officials that he dealt with had no concept of what life was like in Guinea or any other troubled African country, and couldn’t comprehend the terror he had experienced or would encounter if he returned:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>They think we are fine – that everything’s fine in my country. Anything you tell them, they always say it’s a lie … And you can’t force them to believe you.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Having been a successful businessman in Guinea, Leon – like many of our interviewees – told us he found it humiliating to live on food vouchers, food parcels, clothes donations, and other forms of charity.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The only thing I hate all my life is begging – to beg for something. I work. I always worked … So [if] I stay with you and you’re helping me for some time, I’m having difficulty – because it’s like I’m begging you, or I’m telling you my problem [so you will] help me.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>‘Digging my grave’</h2>
<p>Imani is one of our three interviewees who were eventually granted refugee status – in her case, after six years as an asylum seeker. She had come to the UK from Guinea aged only 13.</p>
<p>After the death of her mother, she said she was treated as a slave by her stepmother and suffered genital mutilation. Her family arranged for her to marry an elderly man, but an old friend of her mother’s helped her to escape and paid for her to be trafficked to the UK.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519290/original/file-20230404-24-t23qv9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Placard lit by candle during night-time protest." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519290/original/file-20230404-24-t23qv9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519290/original/file-20230404-24-t23qv9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519290/original/file-20230404-24-t23qv9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519290/original/file-20230404-24-t23qv9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519290/original/file-20230404-24-t23qv9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519290/original/file-20230404-24-t23qv9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519290/original/file-20230404-24-t23qv9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A vigil in Falmouth, Cornwall, highlights the estimated 200 migrant children that have gone missing from government-approved hotels.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/vigil-around-200-candles-were-placed-2259660651">J. Mundy/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During the six years of her asylum process and despite her young age, Imani said she was faced with constant disbelief and hostility by officials who regularly threatened her with deportation. The Home Office questioned her stated age, and didn’t believe “that my parents can give me to marriage at the age of 13 years to someone who has another wife”.</p>
<p>In her words, the Home Office were “digging my grave without even killing me. It was so difficult.”</p>
<p>The Home Office notes that cases involving <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1140168/Assessing_age_March_2023.pdf">age disputes</a> can be extremely challenging, and that the safety and welfare of children in its care is paramount. In Imani’s case, there was a positive resolution. </p>
<p>Having finally attained refugee status, she was able to secure a paid job as a mental health support worker. She also campaigns against female genital mutilation, organising conferences and speaking in the media. She told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I share my story, to let them know I’m a survivor.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>On suicide watch</h2>
<p>Previous studies have shown that asylum seekers and refugees generally are around ten times more likely to <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15823380/">experience psychiatric disorders</a> than the general population. They have been found to experience high levels of <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19654388/">post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and suicidal ideation</a>.</p>
<p>This was true of all of our participants. Several reported seriously contemplating suicide. Some, including George, an African asylum seeker who had spent 11 years in the UK system when we met him, had attempted to take their life. He told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’ve thought of committing suicide. I was on suicide watch for some time. Twice now, I’ve tried to take my own life.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>George, who is bisexual, described in graphic detail how, as a teenager, he had been designated a “witch” and subjected to severe physical and sexual abuse during rituals. He showed us multiple scars and injuries all over his body, including marks where his fingertips had been cut to draw blood.</p>
<p>After 11 years in the UK, George told us that his case was “still ongoing, and ongoing and ongoing”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s hard to be living this life of uncertainty. You don’t know what is going to happen. You could just be in the house tonight and they’ll come with their squad, break down your door and get you out. Just like that. You just take the life hour by hour.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Like Gloria, George told us he was experiencing constant flashbacks to his earlier violent trauma:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When I try to sleep, I see faces. Sometimes I hear the voice of my mother – she’s crying sometimes … And I hear the man that abused me – you know, what he was saying to me. And there was this sperm that he rubbed, you know, he put on my face when he was abusing me. That smell never leaves my nostrils.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>More detention and trauma</h2>
<p>Under the government’s controversial <a href="https://theconversation.com/illegal-immigration-bill-does-more-than-push-the-boundaries-of-international-law-201332">illegal migration bill</a>, introduced on March 7 2023, none of the individuals we’ve heard from would have been admitted to the UK. The bill effectively denies asylum to anybody who is not part of an <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1011824/Resettlement_Policy_Guidance_2021.pdf">agreed scheme</a>, no matter how compelling or urgent their case.</p>
<p>If the bill is passed by parliament, anyone who seeks asylum in the UK without being a part of an agreed scheme will either be returned to their home country or shipped to a third-party country, such as <a href="https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/uk-rwanda-asylum-agreement-why-is-it-a-memorandum-of-understanding-and-not-a-treaty/#:%7E:text=On%2014%20April%202022%2C%20the,their%20asylum%20claims%20processed%20there.">Rwanda</a>, without recourse to any form of legal appeal.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-toxic-policy-with-little-returns-lessons-for-the-uk-rwanda-deal-from-australia-and-the-us-201790">'A toxic policy with little returns' – lessons for the UK-Rwanda deal from Australia and the US</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In reality, however, it is doubtful that more than a tiny number of asylum seekers will be shipped anywhere. If enacted, the government’s bill is predicted to lead to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/22/draconian-migration-bill-could-leave-tens-of-thousands-destitute-or-locked-up">more long-term detention</a>. As Peter William Walsh from the <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/about/">Migration Observatory</a> has <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-governments-plan-to-remove-asylum-seekers-will-be-a-logistical-mess-and-may-not-deter-people-from-coming-to-the-uk-201248">pointed out</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>One strange quirk of the new bill is that it appears to make it harder, not easier, for the government to remove people who are not considered refugees.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Asylum seekers can only be sent back to their home countries if they are deemed safe – but since the new bill doesn’t allow claims to be assessed, there is no way of determining this. This suggests that they would have to be sent to a third-party country.</p>
<p>So far, though, only Rwanda has agreed to serve this role, and is presently only capable of taking 200 people. No one has actually been sent there yet, and it is possible that, due to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/asylum-seekers-appeal-against-deportation-britain-ahead-first-rwanda-flight-2022-06-13/">legal challenges,</a> no one will be. The implication is that most new asylum seekers will be detained indefinitely in the UK, no matter how valid their claims.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn01403/">most recent statistics</a>, the Home Office has a backlog of 166,100 asylum cases, including 101,400 cases awaiting an initial decision, 4,900 awaiting the outcome of an appeal, and around 38,900 cases subject to removal action.</p>
<p>The Home Office acknowledges the asylum system has been under mounting pressure for several years. It states that it is recruiting more decision-makers to help clear the backlog of cases, with a target of employing <a href="https://www.ein.org.uk/news/immigration-minister-says-home-office-aims-have-2500-asylum-caseworkers-place-august-2023">2,500 by September 2023</a>.</p>
<p>However, research by the Refugee Council suggests the government’s new illegal migration bill could mean that, over the next three years, 190,000 more people are “<a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/latest/news/nearly-200000-people-could-be-locked-up-or-forced-into-destitution-new-report-on-asylum-bill-reveals/">locked up or forced into destitution”</a>. This figure – which the Home Office has disputed – includes 45,000 children and even factors in the possibility that 30,000 asylum seekers could be sent to Rwanda. The cost to the British taxpayer is estimated at around £9 billion by the Refugee Council study.</p>
<p>In practice, the government’s new bill may achieve little beyond, in the words of Solace’s Burghgraef: “Exerting unbearable pressure on thousands of already traumatised and extremely stressed sanctuary seekers, putting them at risk of long term entrenched mental health difficulties.”</p>
<p>When some of the issues raised by this article were put to the Home Office, a spokesperson commmented:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We have not been able to investigate the individual [anonymised] accusations as we have not received their details. But we recognise many asylum seekers have experienced challenging circumstances when making their way here, which is why we ensure our staff are robustly trained to identify vulnerabilities throughout the process.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The spokesperson added:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The UK has a proud record of providing protection to individuals fleeing persecution, underpinned by a robust framework of safeguards and quality checks to ensure protection is granted to those who genuinely need it.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>‘Tired of everything’</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_the_Dead_(novel)">The House of the Dead</a>, the Russian novelist Dostoevsky wrote that “the degree of civilisation in a society can be judged by entering its prisons”. In a similar way, we can judge how civilised a society is by the way it treats asylum seekers and refugees. By this criterion, we are clearly failing.</p>
<p>Our interviews offer a reminder that every asylum seeker or refugee is not a political statistic but an individual with a complex personal history. At a time when some MPs and commentators are attempting to delegitimise the whole concept of seeking asylum – <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/nov/02/priti-patel-urged-to-justify-claim-most-boat-migrants-not-real-refugees">claiming</a> that “most” asylum seekers are either criminals or economic migrants – the stories illustrate that a great many are, in fact, deeply traumatised individuals with extremely poor mental health.</p>
<p>Mariama, from Sierra Leone, was one of the lucky ones whose claim for asylum had been approved when we interviewed her. She had previously struggled to survive in the UK for nine years, spending most of the time “squatting” on the floors and sofas of acquaintances or strangers – who, she told us, often exploited her by requiring her to work for them:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You have to work in houses, cook for them, do everything for them – and during those times you don’t even have your freedom. You’re not free because you are in somebody [else]’s house.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Now that she had refugee status, however, Mariama said she felt relieved and grateful to still be alive – like a survivor at the end of a long war. But she was also quick to point out that many others in the UK’s asylum system are not so fortunate:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’ve heard of asylum seekers who committed suicide – left a note [saying] they shouldn’t blame anybody. [They’re] just tired of everything … So I feel grateful I’m still alive. And I feel grateful that there are still good people out there, who can come to your aid when you need them.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>If you’re struggling with suicidal thoughts, the following services can provide you with support. In the UK and Ireland – call Samaritans UK at 116 123. In the US – call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or IMAlive at 1-800-784-2433. In Australia – call Lifeline Australia at 13 11 14. In other countries – visit IASP or Suicide.org to find a helpline in your country.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>For you: more from our <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Insights series</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/a-toxic-policy-with-little-returns-lessons-for-the-uk-rwanda-deal-from-australia-and-the-us-201790?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">‘A toxic policy with little returns’ – lessons for the UK-Rwanda deal from Australia and the US</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-heroes-left-behind-the-invisible-women-struggling-to-make-ends-meet-198210?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">COVID heroes left behind: the ‘invisible’ women struggling to make ends meet
</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/its-like-being-in-a-warzone-aande-nurses-open-up-about-the-emotional-cost-of-working-on-the-nhs-frontline-194197?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">‘It’s like being in a warzone’ – A&E nurses open up about the emotional cost of working on the NHS frontline</a></em></p></li>
</ul>
<p><em>To hear about new Insights articles, join the hundreds of thousands of people who value The Conversation’s evidence-based news. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/the-daily-newsletter-2?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK"><strong>Subscribe to our newsletter</strong></a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202276/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Taylor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. He is the author of DisConnected: The Roots of Human Cruelty and How Connection Can Heal the World (Iff Books).</span></em></p>We wanted to examine not only the experiences that drove asylum seekers to the UK, but also the psychological effects of their experiences in the asylum system.Steve Taylor, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Leeds Beckett UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2028802023-04-03T14:46:24Z2023-04-03T14:46:24ZThe UK spent a third of its international aid budget on refugees in the UK – what it’s paying for, and why it’s a problem<p>A third of the UK’s international aid budget was spent supporting refugees in the UK in 2022. A new report by the <a href="https://icai.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/UK-aid-to-Refugees-in-the-UK_ICAI-review.pdf">Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI)</a> details the £3.5 billion expense, a threefold increase on 2021, and about 12 times the amount spent in 2015.</p>
<p>An enquiry by a parliamentary committee <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/34179/documents/188059/default">published in February</a> expressed concerns about the government’s increased spending on refugees in the UK. The committee called it a “political choice” that comes “at the expense of
vulnerable and marginalised people living in the world’s poorest countries”. But the ICAI report is the first to provide a detailed analysis of how much is being spent.</p>
<p>The ceiling on the UK’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget was cut from 0.7% to 0.5% of gross national income in 2020. This means that as the overall budget is shrinking, the share spent in the UK is growing. This is bad for international development, since programmes supporting some of the poorest people in the world <a href="https://theconversation.com/four-global-problems-that-will-be-aggravated-by-the-uks-recent-cuts-to-international-aid-202208">have been cut</a>.</p>
<p>The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)‘s development assistance committee (DAC) defines ODA as “government aid designed to promote the economic development and welfare of developing countries”. </p>
<p>Supporting refugees in a wealthy nation does not fit this definition. But under <a href="https://www.oecd.org/dac/financing-sustainable-development/development-finance-standards/refugee-costs-oda.htm">current rules</a> countries “can count the costs of assisting refugees on their soil” (known as in-donor refugee costs). </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://icai.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/UK-aid-to-Refugees-in-the-UK_ICAI-review.pdf">the ICAI report</a>, most of the in-donor refugee costs are accounted for by the Home Office, which has been especially profligate, especially in the use of hotels to house thousands of asylum seekers. The daily cost of this is £120 per person, much more than the £18 per person that longer-term accommodation would cost.</p>
<p>But the Home Office has, so far, had no financial incentive to move refugees out of hotel accommodation. </p>
<p>Current rules allow these costs to be taken from the ODA budget, but only for the first 12 months after arrival. The increase in refugees to the UK over the last year, and the <a href="https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/article/explainer/asylum-backlog">massive backlog</a> on applications, means that people are now staying in emergency accommodation for over a year while they await their asylum decisions.</p>
<p>Once the duration of stay exceeds a year, the costs must be paid from other Home Office budgets. As the Home Office now has to pick up a bigger bill for hotels, they are focusing on finding cheaper alternatives, such as <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65107827">ex-military bases</a>.</p>
<p>The ICAI also found that the government did not appropriately oversee “value for money” in the private contracts used to arrange accommodation.</p>
<h2>Hotel costs</h2>
<p>This vast expense – a daily cost of £6.8 million in October 2022 – is also bad for refugees in the UK, who face tremendous uncertainty and very poor treatment <a href="https://www.refugee-action.org.uk/hostile-accommodation">in asylum hotels</a>. The use of hotels has also exacerbated <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/23/uk-asylum-seekers-who-complain-about-conditions-threatened-with-rwanda">hostility to refugees</a>, particularly in the cost of living crisis. </p>
<p>UK government ministers have fuelled this hostility, with Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister, calling hotel accommodation <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/29/dominic-raab-refugees-hotels-safety">a “pull factor”</a> encouraging people to come to the UK, and Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/29/asylum-seekers-housed-portakabins-maybe-ships-robert-jenrick">blaming these soaring costs on “illegal”</a> immigrants themselves. In-donor refugee costs can, as the title suggests, only be spent on refugees. This includes asylum seekers awaiting a decision on their application, but not those whose claim has been rejected and are asked or forced to leave the country. </p>
<p>The parliamentary committee report highlighted how much more effectively this money could be spent overseas. Our work at the <a href="https://www.displacementeconomies.org/">Protracted Displacement Economies project</a> at the University of Sussex illustrates this clearly, showing how flourishing economies develop in situations of mass displacement in some of the poorest countries in the world. The UK’s development aid could be far more effective supporting refugees in these economies rather than on hotel accommodation in the UK.</p>
<h2>Phantom aid</h2>
<p>The reporting of in-donor refugee costs as part of development budgets <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-aid-budgets-are-used-to-help-refugees-at-home-is-it-still-foreign-aid-47331">has always been controversial</a>. In 2005, the charity ActionAid coined the term “phantom aid” to refer to aid that had no effect on improving the lives of poor people. This category included in-donor refugee costs. The OECD itself has also <a href="https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/investigations/2017/07/21/aid-credibility-stake-donors-haggle-over-reporting-rules">criticised the practice</a>. </p>
<p>In the face of significant pressure from European donors, in 2017 the DAC issued <a href="https://www.oecd.org/dac/financing-sustainable-development/development-finance-standards/refugee-costs-oda.htm">five “clarifications”</a> stipulating who and what can be covered. One of these is an emphasis on “the need for a conservative approach” when it comes to recording costs, which the UK appears to be stretching.</p>
<p>Before 2010, the UK simply <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmintdev/179/17907.htm#a22">did not include in-donor refugee costs</a> as part of ODA. In 2014, the UK’s reported in-donor refugee costs exceeded 1% of ODA for the first time and grew sharply from there, reaching 10% in 2021,<a href="https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?datasetcode=CRS1">more than double</a> the average figure for all 31 DAC countries. When confirmed, the 2022 figure of a third of the budget spent in the UK will far outstrip that of other members.</p>
<p>Some countries, such as Australia and Luxembourg, do not count in-donor refugee costs as part of ODA at all. Others, like France, report only direct costs incurred to support refugees. The UK is unusual in also reporting estimated costs, such as costs to the NHS (which are impossible to work out exactly).</p>
<p>To solve this, the ICAI recommends the government set an enforced upper limit on using the overseas aid budget for refugees in the UK. Even better would be to return to the situation of a decade ago when the UK set a principled example, recognising that in-donor refugee costs should not be part of overseas aid.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202880/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Collyer receives funding from Economic and Social Research Council (grant number ES/T004509/1). He is chair of Sanctuary on Sea, Brighton's City of Sanctuary group. </span></em></p>The UK can count asylum seeker housing for 12 months as international aid.Michael Collyer, Professor of Geography, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2022072023-03-31T11:41:34Z2023-03-31T11:41:34ZThe UK’s unworkable immigration plans allow the government to blame others for its failure<p>The <a href="https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3429">illegal migration bill</a>, which purports to end small boat crossings and would effectively bar asylum seeking, has made its way through committee stage. The controversial policy is more likely to be challenged in international courts than to <a href="https://freemovement.org.uk/does-the-policy-of-deterring-asylum-seekers-actually-work">curb small boat crossings</a>. So why is the government pursuing it? </p>
<p>This is arguably not a law intended to end dangerous boat crossings. It’s possibly not even intended to be implemented. It is performative politics, designed to distract from the failures of government and put the Conservatives’ opponents in the firing line ahead of the next election. </p>
<p>On its face, the bill signals to the electorate that the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is tough on immigration. It shows him ostensibly fulfilling one of his <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/what-is-rishi-sunaks-five-point-illegal-immigration-plan-and-why-does-it-target-albanians-12767419">five pledges</a> to “stop the boats”. It is an attempt to hold together the Conservative voter base in the face of <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2023/02/01/100-days-rishi-sunaks-ratings-are-lacklustre-and-h">polling that suggests electoral defeat</a>. </p>
<p>It’s been a long road for the Conservatives and Channel crossings. Former and current home secretaries have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/07/conservatives-channel-crossings-small-boats-tories-rwanda-deportation">repeatedly failed</a> to meet their own goals. The <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/uk-court-of-appeal-to-reconsider-rwanda-asylum-plan/a-64412012">plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda</a>, on which the current bill hinges, is still in legal limbo. </p>
<p>And again we’ve heard suggestions of housing asylum seekers on vessels – something Sunak floated as chancellor which was “<a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/migrants-on-cruise-ships-rishi-sunak_uk_642404cfe4b0512ca921bf80">laughed off the table</a>” – and plans to use military barracks. All of these were made with perfectly distracting timing. </p>
<p>But it’s a drum worth beating for the Conservatives because they are failing by the public’s measure on many other issues. Immigration has long been a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-923X.13111">winning ticket for the party</a>. At a time where the country feels out of control, performative politics in immigration is a way to displace blame. </p>
<p>Public opinion on immigration is <a href="https://swingometer.substack.com/p/the-issues-with-stop-the-boats">complex</a> and nuanced. While the public has become <a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/uk-attitudes-to-immigration-among-most-positive-internationally-1018742-pub01-115">more positive on immigration</a> generally, they <a href="https://www.ippr.org/research/publications/a-new-consensus">care about rules and fairness</a>. So while hardline responses to Channel crossings <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2021/11/30/four-five-britons-disapprove-governments-handling-">receive public support</a>, punitive policies may <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01402380500512627">come with a political cost</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-governments-plan-to-remove-asylum-seekers-will-be-a-logistical-mess-and-may-not-deter-people-from-coming-to-the-uk-201248">The government's plan to remove asylum seekers will be a logistical mess – and may not deter people from coming to the UK</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This is a high stakes gamble, and one that <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/explore/issue/Immigration?content=trackers">isn’t winning the public</a> at the moment. When it comes to voters, <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2023/03/27/few-britons-think-government-doing-good-job-delive">73%</a> say Sunak is doing badly with his pledge to “stop the boats”, <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/trackers/how-the-government-is-handling-the-issue-of-immigration-in-the-uk">80% say</a> the government is handling immigration badly, and the Conservatives are trailing behind Labour on competency on immigration. </p>
<p>But this bill isn’t for the public at large, it’s for the socially conservative heartlands. It’s an appeal to hold on to the “red wall” voters who are <a href="https://samf.substack.com/p/collision-course">well to the left of Sunak economically</a> but are less favourable toward immigration than the <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2021/05/17/stereotypical-image-red-wall-residents-accurate">wider British public</a>. </p>
<h2>Blame tactics</h2>
<p>The bill, or rather its inevitable roadblocks, allow the Conservatives to blame others for its failures on immigration: Labour, Europe and “lefty lawyers” in an ongoing culture war, and migrants themselves.</p>
<p><strong>Labour</strong></p>
<p>The bill forces the opposition into a corner. Supporting an unworkable and inhumane bill is not a good look for a supposedly leftwing party, yet opposing hardline policy to tackle irregular migration also does them little favours. Immigration remains an <a href="https://theconversation.com/labour-sounds-like-the-tories-on-immigration-but-its-policy-goes-back-to-its-trade-union-roots-195221">ideological headache for Labour</a>, opening a chasm between its trade union roots and a desire to appeal to the global business world.</p>
<p>The bill allows the Conservatives to paint the opposition as a “soft touch” on immigration – something the party has been dogged with <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-64692-3">since their time in office</a>. </p>
<p><strong>Europe</strong></p>
<p>While support for Brexit has drifted, the Conservatives won political dividends in the 2019 election for casting Europe as a threat to national sovereignty and promising to “Get Brexit Done”. Despite his attempts to mend the wounds with Europe, Sunak has reportedly considered <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/feb/05/tory-mps-to-push-for-uk-exit-from-european-convention-of-human-rights">withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights</a> (ECHR), something the home secretary, Suella Braverman, has long backed. </p>
<p>Braverman herself has said there is a <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/exclusive-suella-braverman-admits-immigration-crackdown-may-not-be-legal_uk_64072e62e4b0586db70fd939">more than a 50% chance</a> that the bill violates the ECHR. It is inevitable that the legislation will be challenged at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Any delays to its implementation can then be blamed on the nebulous beast of Europe, once again derided as a threat to UK sovereignty.</p>
<p>As with the Rwanda plan, legal challenges play well for the Conservatives. Punitive and violent removals (which the public probably won’t stomach on the ground) don’t happen, and the government can maintain they are taking a hardline stance. This also pushes Europe back up the political agenda – an issue they can win on much more easily than Labour.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A Border Force boat carrying several migrants and Border Force officials pulls up to a dock in Dover" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518406/original/file-20230330-18-8tm80s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518406/original/file-20230330-18-8tm80s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518406/original/file-20230330-18-8tm80s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518406/original/file-20230330-18-8tm80s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518406/original/file-20230330-18-8tm80s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518406/original/file-20230330-18-8tm80s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518406/original/file-20230330-18-8tm80s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The government’s plan to stop small boat crossings is almost certain to face legal challenges.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/dover-kent-uk-5th-september-2022-2222605723">Sean Aidan Calderbank/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>“Lefty” lawyers</strong></p>
<p>As the public become more concerned with daily issues like the economy and NHS crisis, the Conservatives have sought to bring social activism and identity into the spotlight. This <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/08/culture-war-games-rishi-sunak-liz-truss-war-on-woke">“war on woke”</a> is a political tactic served to deflect from failures in the economy and public policy. </p>
<p>Sunak has already castigated “<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/246232b7-2f83-4698-a2bd-368e396913fe">lefty lawyers</a>” who he says are thwarting efforts to crack down on illegal migrants, while Braverman has only just got started with claims of “an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/mar/08/suella-braverman-accused-of-rule-breach-over-blob-of-civil-servants-email">activist blob</a> of leftwing lawyers”. </p>
<p><strong>Migrants</strong></p>
<p>Blame games are ubiquitous in immigration politics. In <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2023-03-13/debates/97D4F67E-2C1B-44CB-B860-DD9024958EEF/IllegalMigrationBill">debate on the current bill</a> we even see blame games over the 1990s asylum seeker crisis. </p>
<p>While governments get the blame for policies which fail to curb the number of asylum seekers, immigrants can be blamed for all the nation’s ills: lack of jobs, crime, terrorism, even environmental degradation. </p>
<p>Whether this strategy is successful depends on whether the public deem the specific migrants as “deserving” or vulnerable. Braverman’s emphasis on <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/home-secretary-statement-on-the-illegal-immigration-bill">male Albanian asylum seekers</a> is an attempt to frame this humanitarian movement as illegitimate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202207/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erica Consterdine does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The illegal migration bill is performative politics that allows the Conservatives to blame opponents ahead of a key election.Erica Consterdine, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2013322023-03-08T14:30:47Z2023-03-08T14:30:47ZIllegal immigration bill does more than ‘push the boundaries’ of international law<p>The UK government has introduced its latest effort to deter small boat migration, by vowing to remove all those who arrive in the UK illegally by any route. The <a href="https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3429">illegal migration bill</a>, if enacted, will apply retrospectively, meaning that those who arrived even before the bill’s passage will be subject to detention and arbitrary removal without a legal remedy.</p>
<p>The home secretary, Suella Braverman, immediately recognised the bill was likely to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/home-secretary-statement-on-the-illegal-immigration-bill">“push the boundaries of international law”</a> and refused to make a statement of compliance with the Human Rights Act 1998. On closer inspection, it does not merely push the boundaries, it rides roughshod over domestic law, common law and the UK’s international human rights obligations.</p>
<p>The government’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/home-secretary-statement-on-the-illegal-immigration-bill">justification</a> for turning people away from seeking asylum is that people who have travelled by boat will have passed through other safe countries, where they should have claimed asylum first.</p>
<p>This logic rests on a shaky interpretation of <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/3bcfdf164.pdf">Article 31 of the Refugee Convention</a>, which states that refugees should not be penalised for their entry, providing they come directly and show good cause.</p>
<p>The international right to seek and enjoy asylum was first established by the the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights">Universal Declaration on Human Rights</a> in 1948, and developed in the Refugee Convention of 1951. Crucially, these documents do not say that this right depends on applying for protection in the first safe country. </p>
<p>International refugee law is difficult to enforce through legal mechanisms. It relies instead on a sense of solidarity and surrogacy, whereby host states step in to protect refugees who can no longer live safely in their country of origin. </p>
<p>The UN refugee agency has <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/uk/news/press/2023/3/6407794e4/statement-on-uk-asylum-bill.html">emphasised this</a> in a harsh critique of the bill, saying that it would not only violate the refugee convention, but would “undermine a longstanding, humanitarian tradition of which the British people are rightly proud”.</p>
<p>Legal challenges are on the horizon for this bill should it receive royal assent. Many of these fall under domestic legislation and fundamental constitutional law principles, notably access to justice and the rule of law.</p>
<h2>Arbitrary detention</h2>
<p>The bill states that people who arrive illegally can be detained for up to 28 days “with no recourse for bail or judicial review”, before being returned to their country of origin or a safe third country. But since leaving the EU’s <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/4a9d13d59.pdf">Dublin Regulation</a>, the UK does not have workable arrangements with other countries to do this. Its <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-uks-plans-to-send-asylum-seekers-to-rwanda-raise-four-red-flags-182709">Rwanda deal</a> is the exception, but this has been stalled by legal challenges and will no doubt require individual case assessments to ensure it meets international obligations.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.asylumlawdatabase.eu/en/content/ecthr-saadi-v-united-kingdom-no-1322903-29-january-2008">Past cases</a> have established that the Home Office must act in good faith and proportionately when detaining asylum seekers. Detention should be for the shortest period possible and imposed as a measure of last resort. <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1114803/Adults_at_risk_in_immigration_detention.pdf">Home Office guidance</a> establishes that victims of torture, children and vulnerable adults, including those subjected to trafficking, should not normally be exposed to detention.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/manston-holding-facility-does-the-uks-treatment-of-asylum-seekers-violate-the-law-194001">Manston holding facility: does the UK's treatment of asylum seekers violate the law?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Additionally, the <a href="https://www.ein.org.uk/news/court-appeal-upholds-high-court-ruling-detained-fast-track-system-unlawful">court of appeal held</a> in 2015 that the government’s “fast track” procedure for asylum seekers (which usually involved a detention of less than 10 days) was unlawful because it interfered with the right to access advice and appeal against removal. There have been <a href="https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2011/2748.html">numerous</a> <a href="https://ukhumanrightsblog.com/2011/09/29/detention-of-mentally-ill-foreign-national-violated-convention-rights-daniel-sokol/">cases</a> where acutely vulnerable people were found to have been unlawfully detained.</p>
<p>The government has preempted this by trying to remove rights of appeal from the equation, stating outright in the bill that those who arrive illegally do not have recourse for bail or judicial review. </p>
<p>This opens up the second legal challenge, based on the “right to an effective remedy” when fundamental rights are impacted, outlined in <a href="https://www.echr.coe.int/documents/guide_art_13_eng.pdf">Article 13</a> of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This is <a href="https://www.asylumlawdatabase.eu/en/content/ecthr-mss-v-belgium-and-greece-gc-application-no-3069609">often invoked</a> alongside the absolute <a href="https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/fre#%7B%22itemid%22:%5B%22002-102%22%5D%7D">prohibition</a> of inhuman and degrading treatment under <a href="https://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Guide_Art_3_ENG.pdf">Article 3</a> of the ECHR. </p>
<p>The two provisions require access to a legal procedure for someone to argue that return to their country of origin would constitute a “real risk” of ill treatment. </p>
<p>Article 3 is enforceable in the UK due to the Human Rights Act, and provides a legal mechanism to respect the international obligation of non-refoulement – that people should not be returned to their home countries if they face threats to their safety. </p>
<p>This <a href="https://www.asylumlawdatabase.eu/en/content/mk-and-others-v-poland-repeated-refusal-accept-asylum-applications-amounted-collective">extends</a> to chain refoulement, which is when removal occurs via an intermediary “third” country.</p>
<p>Past attempts to <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmbills/042/04042.8-14.html">oust the jurisdiction of the courts in immigration law</a> have met with resistance from senior judges. There is an evident contradiction in the new bill, as it states that those at risk of “serious and irreversible harm” will not be removed, thereby protecting the obligation of non-refoulement in principle. How this can be determined without a legal challenge is not clear.</p>
<p>There were 45,000 small boat arrivals in 2022. Half came from five countries with asylum grant rates of 80-90%, meaning that they are incredibly likely to have their asylum cases recognised as valid. Even Albanians seeking protection have a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/factsheet-small-boat-crossings-since-july-2022/factsheet-small-boat-crossings-since-july-2022">53% success rate at first instance</a>.</p>
<p>For many of these people, a number of whom are children, they cannot access a <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/press/a-tale-of-two-protection-systems-afghan-refugees-turn-to-small-boats-while-ukrainians-use-safe-and-legal-routes-to-reach-uk/">safe and legal route</a> to reach the UK. The government’s proposals would turn them away before their cases could be considered.</p>
<p>It is very clear from these statistics that the majority of those arriving “illegally” are indeed refugees, and should therefore derive full protection from the Refugee Convention – including the right to work, education and non-discrimination. As the <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/uk/news/press/2023/3/6407794e4/statement-on-uk-asylum-bill.html">UN response</a> says: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Branding refugees as undeserving based on mode of arrival distorts these fundamental facts.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Global challenges of this scale require partnership and responsibility-sharing between nations, not unilateral decisions that undermine refugee protection and fundamental rights.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201332/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen O'Nions is affiliated with Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Refugee Forum </span></em></p>The UK government’s plan to remove asylum seekers will likely face legal challenges.Helen O'Nions, Associate Professor, Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1994792023-02-17T12:09:57Z2023-02-17T12:09:57ZRefugee families being moved from London to Leeds – our research shows what is lost when newcomers have to leave a neighbourhood<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509784/original/file-20230213-24-e0auxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=42%2C33%2C5439%2C3278&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-train-tube-station-blur-people-167932148">alice-photo/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Just over a year after fleeing the Taliban and seeking asylum in the UK, more than 150 Afghan refugees, including children, are facing more upheaval. In a matter of weeks, the Home Office has given dozens of refugee and asylum seeker families short notice that they will be moved from their accommodation in London to hotels in <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/afghan-refugees-told-to-move-200-miles-from-london-to-yorkshire-kmrgq86n6">Yorkshire</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/feb/08/refugees-protest-against-plan-to-move-them-from-london-to-bedfordshire">Bedfordshire</a>, hundreds of miles away.</p>
<p>Many new arrivals find themselves moved to different areas, often where accommodation is cheaper. This involves taking (often vulnerable) people far away from the neighbourhood where they have begun settling in, and where they have started in local schools and jobs. Our research in the London boroughs of <a href="https://migrantarrival.coventry.ac.uk">Newham</a> and <a href="https://rerootproject.eu/">Barking & Dagenham</a> illustrates how important these point-of-arrival communities are to refugees – and what is at stake when people are made to leave.</p>
<p>Our work involves speaking to newcomers, learning about their experiences since arrival, spending time in local places that feature in their lives, and working alongside people that provide services and support. </p>
<p>The resources, opportunities and support structures people use to get orientated in a new community make up what we call “arrival infrastructure”. This involves interactions with people, from paid service providers to friends, colleagues and strangers on the street. It happens in parks, markets, barbershops, libraries, community centres, schools and shared accommodation.</p>
<p>New migrants invest a lot of labour and energy in becoming accustomed to new surroundings, getting to know a new neighbourhood, working out how to access local services, schools and GPs, and building relationships in the community. Even more emotional and physical effort is needed to secure a job. For many, this depends on establishing relationships with the right people first. </p>
<h2>Changing places</h2>
<p>Schools, community centres, and places of worship; friends, co-tenants and colleagues; even the local off-licence – all of these are key parts of arrival infrastructure. They can’t be packed up and moved to a different locality.</p>
<p>The decline in affordable housing and council accommodation in the UK has created dilemmas for local councils and the Home Office when it comes to housing vulnerable residents. Yet authorities need to weigh the financial gains of moving families against the losses to vulnerable people who are forced to abandon the lives they have built and go somewhere else. </p>
<p>A Home Office spokesperson told The Conversation: “While hotels do not provide a long-term solution, they do offer safe, secure and clean accommodation. We will continue to bring down the number of people in bridging hotels, moving people into more sustainable accommodation as quickly as possible.</p>
<p>"Occasionally families may be moved from a hotel scheduled for closure to another hotel. In these instances, families are given appropriate notice of a move and are supported by their local authority every step of the way.”</p>
<p>We know from our research that access to support varies from place to place. One ex-asylum seeker we spoke to easily accessed a GP in her Dagenham neighbourhood. But she struggled to get healthcare in other areas, where local surgeries insisted on proof of address that she was unable to provide while in Home Office accommodation. Although NHS policy does not require documentary proof of address, some surgeries insist on it. <a href="https://www.healthwatch.co.uk/news/2016-01-08/do-you-need-proof-address-register-gp">Healthwatch</a> has found this to be a common barrier preventing people from registering with a GP.</p>
<p>We also know that schools and workplaces can be crucial in settling in – and not purely because they offer an education or a salary. Among new arrivals in Barking, work often provides opportunities for friendships, knowledge-sharing and improving English language skills. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A large, handmade sign with a blue background and a colourful picture of a hand surrounded by quotes about community, neighbours and supporting each other." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509777/original/file-20230213-15-o2iwxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509777/original/file-20230213-15-o2iwxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509777/original/file-20230213-15-o2iwxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509777/original/file-20230213-15-o2iwxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509777/original/file-20230213-15-o2iwxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509777/original/file-20230213-15-o2iwxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509777/original/file-20230213-15-o2iwxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This mural, painted by a local resident in Barking & Dagenham, shows how the community has welcomed and supported newcomers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tamlyn Monson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Schools as arrival hubs</h2>
<p>Our research shows how important schools are in helping newly arrived families settle in. Some schools become real “arrival hubs” in their local area where staff fulfil a variety of roles going way beyond education. They help newly arrived families navigate complex bureaucratic processes and make social connections in the neighbourhood. Perhaps most importantly, they provide emotional support in times that can be uncertain and distressing. </p>
<p>As Soofia Amin, assistant head teacher at Kensington Primary School in East Ham, told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We strive to be there as a constant support with our doors always open, this is what helps our newly arrived families. We are the safe space when they first arrive. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>One woman we spoke to, Daniela (not her real name), is a mother and volunteer at a primary school in the London borough of Newham. After several years in the borough, Daniela now feels confident about how to find help and participate in local life. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Now I can say that with any problem I have, I know where to go. Maybe it’s because I have been here for longer and I grow a little bit to understand where to go in the neighbourhood. And really, we have a lot of support here. Anything you need – you can go to school; you can do anything.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Daniela and Soofia remind us of the value of a neighbourhood in helping new arrivals solve problems, access services and get involved in local life. In this sense, the costs for refugees being moved away from their jobs and schools goes deeper than the obvious impacts to their education and income. Their wellbeing, social inclusion, participation and sense of belonging are all at risk.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199479/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Malte Gembus works for Coventry University on a research grant provided by the ESRC. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tamlyn Monson works for Coventry University. Her position is funded by a grant provided by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 101004704. </span></em></p>Schools, friends, support and local knowledge can’t be picked up and moved to a different city.Malte Gembus, Postdoctoral research fellow, Coventry UniversityTamlyn Monson, Postdoctoral research fellow, Coventry UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1966932022-12-16T16:18:51Z2022-12-16T16:18:51ZAsylum claim rejections show the UK government has little understanding of what people are fleeing – and it’s costing lives<p>After yet <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63968941">another tragedy</a> in the Channel, there is no doubt that something needs to be done to improve the processes overseeing asylum seekers coming to the UK, through whatever route. The UK’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has outlined a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/dec/13/rishi-sunak-tells-mps-clear-asylum-backlog-end-of-2023">five-point plan</a> to fix Britain’s broken immigration system.</p>
<p>New laws will criminalise those who enter the country “illegally”, allowing people to be more rapidly deported. Newly arrived migrants will find it more difficult to open bank accounts, and definitions of modern slavery will be changed to make it harder to claim asylum on this basis. More case workers will be drafted in to help remove people more rapidly and deal with the backlog of asylum claims.</p>
<p>More than <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/latest/news/government-statistics-show-a-staggering-backlog-of-asylum-claims-a-high-grant-rate-and-a-lack-of-safe-routes/">143,000</a> people are still awaiting a decision on their asylum application, unable to work and living in immigration limbo. Nearly 100,000 of these have been waiting for more than six months. Sunak has promised to get rid of the backlog within a year.</p>
<p>The application process is too long and complex, so promises to increase capacity are welcome and overdue. But the problems go beyond resources to respond to applications. There are real dangers that the current plan could result in thousands (perhaps tens of thousands) of people with legitimate claims being sent back to countries in which they face significant threats to their safety.</p>
<p>Over the past 20 years, I have written more than 50 expert reports for appeals against Home Office decisions to refuse asylum claims. I have witnessed at first hand how the Home Office has failed asylum seekers over Labour, coalition and Conservative governments.</p>
<h2>Poor judgement in rejections</h2>
<p>When an application has been refused, the person receives the decision and reasoning in a Home Office refusal letter. Reading the application and decision documents, it is clear that outcomes are being decided by officials with a very limited understanding of the countries and contexts from which people are fleeing. </p>
<p>It was here that I could see the inconsistencies and poor judgements in decision making. Some applicants were members of opposition parties, targeted by states widely known for using violence and intimidation against political opponents. They would be told by the Home Office that this couldn’t be the case, because their government was a multiparty democracy and had signed up to international human rights laws. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/inside-britains-asylum-appeal-system-what-its-like-to-challenge-the-home-office-88907">Inside Britain's asylum appeal system – what it's like to challenge the Home Office</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Accounts of torture might be dismissed on the basis that a government had signed international laws against the use of torture, and illegal detention couldn’t happen because the judiciary is (formally) independent. Or dissidents could simply move elsewhere in the country to be safe. </p>
<p>Others were claiming asylum on the basis of being gay, coming from countries where “hatred” does not come close to describing the vitriol felt, and potential for violence against people believed to be LGBTQ+ is rampant. They were told that because they did not have a partner, or did not go to the types of places the Home Office believed gay people hung out, their claims were rejected. Others were told they could seek protection and report threats to the police, despite having described in their claim instances of violence and illegal detention by the police.</p>
<p>Those fleeing from families determined they should go through female genital mutilation were told their governments had laws banning the practice, so this should be sufficient protection. The idea that reality might differ from formal laws and commitments appeared non-existent.</p>
<h2>Inconsistencies</h2>
<p>Making these decisions even more infuriating and downright dangerous is the fact that official <a href="https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/uganda/local-laws-and-customs">Foreign Office travel advice</a> points out the exact dangers the Home Office blithely dismissed.</p>
<p>It wasn’t that the government lacked expertise and knowledge as a whole, just that – wilfully or because of ineffective systems – one department saw the world very differently from the other. </p>
<p>These inconsistencies and outright poor decisions led me to suspect that asylum application rejections often had very little to do with the merit of the case itself, but were deliberate. This was reinforced by the large number of cases I was involved with that were <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.uk/files/a_question_of_credibility_final_0.pdf?VersionId=v7NdxUcRYd3gLn5oOCa0HP6ftAZsy7E6">overturned on appeal</a>.</p>
<p>I believe that governments from the mid-2000s felt the need to look tough on migrants – including asylum seekers – after coming under pressure from a perceived backlash to rising immigration numbers, and facing a constant barrage of misleading and untrue press coverage. Refusing applications allowed the government to appear in control, even if many of the decisions were later overturned on appeal. In this, the lives and wellbeing of people fleeing fear, violence and threats were not just ignored, but used in a political game. </p>
<p>I welcome any decision that will speed up the appallingly labyrinthine, slow and failing asylum application process. But it is not just a faster process that is needed, it is a better one overall. One that uses good understandings of the situations and countries people are fleeing from; one that starts not from a position of distrust but of listening; and a process that focuses on the needs of asylum seekers, not a government seeking to manipulate immigration figures. </p>
<p>I saw very little of that in the latest announcement. The government still appears set on politicising the fear and violence against the most vulnerable for its own ends – and the hostile environment looks set to come back more hostile than ever.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196693/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Jennings is affiliated with Fabian Society. </span></em></p>Many asylum applications are rejected on grounds that dismiss the dire situations in applicants’ countries of origin.Michael Jennings, Professor in Global Development, SOAS, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1952212022-11-25T10:43:31Z2022-11-25T10:43:31ZLabour sounds like the Tories on immigration – but its policy goes back to its trade union roots<p>Keir Starmer has given a glimpse of what immigration policy could look like under a Labour government. Speaking to the Confederation for British Industry, the party leader’s key message was about reducing the UK’s dependency on migrant labour.</p>
<p>Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage, known for his headline-making commentary, has claimed that Labour is now <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/nigel-farage-has-praised-keir-starmers-speech-on-immigration_uk_637cab17e4b0e771d958131a">to the right</a> of Conservatives on immigration. In terms of broad rhetoric, Starmer and the current government aren’t dissimilar on the basic point of ending what they call Britain’s dependence on migrant labour. </p>
<p>This is also something former Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn implicitly put forward in his <a href="https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Real-Change-Labour-Manifesto-2019.pdf">2019 party manifesto</a> by vowing to ban overseas-only recruitment practices and regulate the labour market including “stopping the undercutting of wages”. </p>
<p>Post-Brexit, businesses have urged government to be “practical” on immigration. This plea has largely <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/67f61f1b-288a-4a85-952f-a0f2085717ff">fallen on deaf ears</a>. UK prime minister Rishi Sunak told the CBI his focus is on <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/2022-11-21/rishi-sunak-to-be-urged-to-be-practical-about-immigration-to-plug-shortages">“tackling illegal immigration”</a>, and the government’s most recent immigration plan is almost exclusively focused on asylum. The home secretary, recently under fire for harsh rhetoric on refugees, has said she’s <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/suella-braverman-rwanda-dream-obsession-b2195296.html">obsessed</a> – but not with making it easier for businesses to hire from abroad.</p>
<p>Starmer acknowledged the need for skilled workers from abroad, saying: “We can’t have a situation, as we did with HGV drivers, where temporary shortages threaten to cripple entire sectors of our economy.”</p>
<p>But he makes it clear that any changes to the current immigration system would come with a price for business – clear plans to boost skills and more training, for better pay and conditions and for investment in new technology.</p>
<p>The desire to reduce immigration dependency and give domestic workers more skills is shared by politicians of every stripe, though it’s <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-923X.13111">harder for the Conservative party</a>, so long the party of business, to pursue a strategy that displeases industry so explicitly.<br>
Sunak’s immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, says he wants to see employers <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/more-immigration-needed-to-fill-jobs-and-boost-growth-cbi-boss-to-tell-sunak-12752147">putting British workers first</a>, reminiscent of Gordon Brown’s infamous <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/jan/30/brown-british-jobs-workers">“British jobs for British workers”</a> pledge. But there’s no policy substance behind this platitude. </p>
<p>Jenrick says there’s a need to give the 5 million economically inactive people in Britain the skills to get back into the labour market. He gives no indication of what skills are needed, how to provide this or appreciation of why there are so many economically inactive people in the first place. </p>
<p>New Labour was particularly keen to facilitate and encourage migrant workers under their <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-64692-3">managed migration policy</a>. Some factions of the Conservative government, including the recent prime minister, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/25/liz-truss-plans-more-immigration-in-effort-to-fill-vacancies-and-drive-growth">Liz Truss</a>, are too. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-new-labour-made-britain-into-a-migration-state-85472">How New Labour made Britain into a migration state</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Migration and the economy</h2>
<p>Starmer’s underlying message is about transforming the UK’s political economy from a liberal labour market towards a more coordinated one. Liberal labour markets have low employment protection, light regulations and a large low-wage sector. A key element of this is flexibility, of which migrant labour offers plenty.</p>
<p>Before Brexit, the UK managed to have a very restrictive immigration policy, precisely because EU nationals filled the labour market gaps. However, due to Brexit and now the pandemic, this surplus of flexible labour has dissipated.</p>
<p>Starmer is correct that the UK is structurally dependent on immigrant labour, but this is a product of the government’s (and employers’) own making. Low-paid sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and hospitality <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/migrants-in-the-uk-labour-market-an-overview/">rely on migrant labour</a>, particularly from central and eastern Europe due to the low pay and poor working conditions offered. </p>
<p>The health and social care sectors are a good example of how the government and employers have created dependence on migrant labour. Chronic under-investment in the sector has kept wages low, working conditions poor, and led to major labour shortages. </p>
<p>Apprenticeship schemes have also declined, and recent governments have been reluctant to invest in training and vocational education to move to a more coordinated market economy, where education and training of Britons parallel labour market needs.</p>
<p>Instead, recent governments have relied on points-based immigration systems (PBS) as a panacea for immigration woes. This isn’t just a Conservative issue – New Labour introduced the UK’s first PBS in 2008, though David Cameron’s Conservative-led government dismantled it.</p>
<p>Former prime minister Boris Johnson brought in another system in 2020 but it is a points-based system in name only. In reality it is a series of mandatory requirements with a bit more flex than previously. </p>
<p>The high salary threshold of £25,600 is lower than it was (£30,000), but still nowhere near the salary of many low-paid workers. The excessive red tape of the current post-Brexit system has caused further problems with hiring foreign labour, particularly for <a href="https://www.fsb.org.uk/resource-report/a-world-of-talent.html">small businesses</a>. </p>
<h2>An olive branch to unions</h2>
<p>One aspect of the speech marked a fairly bold shift in tone and direction from the last Labour government. Starmer made clear that trade unions will be part of the conversation with employers about how to reduce dependency on migrant labour. During the New Labour years, neither Tony Blair nor Gordon Brown saw any real role for trade unions in immigration policy. </p>
<p>It is unclear how this will work – trade unions may be part of the conversation on deciding where businesses should invest in training, or in how to improve working conditions and career progression for workers. </p>
<p>In some respects, Starmer is taking Labour back to its protectionist, trade union roots. Since Labour left office in 2010, the party has been soul searching, struggling to resolve the key tension between protecting working-class workers and credibly appealing to competitive, global business. Trying to configure a party that speaks to two diametrically opposing but essential constituencies is a tough gig. </p>
<p>Starmer is not popular with the Corbyn-backing side of Labour, nor the Brexit-voting faction, who have a distaste for Starmer’s remainer credentials. Starmer’s message might appeal to these factions, who want to see more regulation of the labour market and in turn, greater employment rights for citizens. </p>
<p>Trade unions will be pleased to have a privileged seat in policymaking –- an important group to appease as the country faces mass industrial disputes across sectors. Starmer has been at odds with unions after <a href="https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/labour-front-benchers-banned-from-picket-lines-amid-rail-strikes">advising frontbenchers not to join picket lines</a>. This is an olive branch at a key moment.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195221/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erica Consterdine does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Labour and Conservatives share a desire to wean the UK off a dependency on migrant labour.Erica Consterdine, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1947632022-11-18T17:18:41Z2022-11-18T17:18:41ZUK-France migration deal: how does Brexit factor into the plan to stop small boats?<p>A <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/next-phase-in-partnership-to-tackle-illegal-migration-and-small-boat-arrivals/uk-france-joint-statement-enhancing-co-operation-against-illegal-migration">new deal</a> struck between the UK and France to curb the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats has been announced. It involves the UK paying £8 million more to France to increase surveillance and enforcement, mainly on the French coast. </p>
<p>The increase in irregular crossings by sea – over 40,000 so far in 2022 – has really only been observed in the last few years. There were only 300 people <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/commentaries/qa-migrants-crossing-the-english-channel-in-small-boats/">reported in 2018</a>, for example. </p>
<p>A regulation that was dropped in the wake of Brexit allowed the UK to return some asylum seekers to other EU member states without considering their asylum claims. Post-Brexit, the UK can no longer rely on this mechanism to send asylum seekers back to other EU countries. This arrangement ended when the UK left the EU in 2020. So, is this increase a <a href="https://politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/the-uks-refugee-invasion-is-a-brexit-made-policy-failure/">“Brexit-made policy failure”</a>? And is the additional £8 million in funding another example of Brexit-related costs to the UK? </p>
<p>The new deal between the UK and France (a revised version of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/20/uk-french-border-patrols-migrant-clampdown-priti-patel">one settled</a> in 2021) is an important part of the government’s public response, a response which has taken on an almost militaristic tone. The Ministry of Defence <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/migrants-detected-crossing-the-english-channel-in-small-boats-weekly-data">publishes weekly updates</a> of boat crossing statistics. Home Secretary Suella Braverman <a href="https://www.euronews.com/2022/11/01/inflammatory-uk-interior-minister-suella-braverman-slammed-over-migrant-invasion-remark">described the arrival of migrants</a> as an “invasion”, before visiting an immigration holding facility by Chinook helicopter. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/uk-immigration-creating-a-spectacle-around-people-seeking-asylum-generates-fear-and-chaos-not-solutions-194229">UK immigration: creating a spectacle around people seeking asylum generates fear and chaos, not solutions</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/next-phase-in-partnership-to-tackle-illegal-migration-and-small-boat-arrivals/uk-france-joint-statement-enhancing-co-operation-against-illegal-migration">announcement</a> continues this narrative, describing the objective of a “smart” border as “surveillance, detection and interception”, with one key aspect to increase the deployment of French officers to patrol French beaches by 40%.</p>
<p>The government statement describes the ambition for a “multilateral” approach, and refers to imminent discussions with other neighbouring countries. But what it fails to mention is how this situation is connected to the UK’s exit from the EU. </p>
<p><a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9031/">From January 2021</a>, the UK was no longer party to the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), which outlines how EU member states handle asylum procedures and returns.
One aspect of this was the <a href="https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/migration-and-asylum/common-european-asylum-system/country-responsible-asylum-application-dublin-regulation_en">Dublin Regulation</a>, which allowed the UK to return some asylum seekers to other EU member states without considering their asylum claims. </p>
<p>UK-France collaboration on immigration can be traced back to the 2003 <a href="https://www.thelocal.fr/20211130/what-is-the-le-touquet-treaty-and-why-do-french-politicians-want-to-scrap-it/">Le Touquet Treaty</a>, which introduced “juxtaposed” controls in France and Belgium. Initially, this meant embedding officials in the other countries’ passport control teams, but has since expanded to include joint patrols and intelligence-sharing. </p>
<p>Since Le Touquet, which is still in place, a series of further agreements (four in the last four years) have seen the UK <a href="https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2017/07/11/fact-sheet-the-uks-juxtaposed-border-controls/">invest</a> in high-security fencing, lighting, CCTV and other technology to stop people crossing the Channel.</p>
<p>The French perspective is that the small boat crossings are a British problem, and there is some <a href="https://www.thelocal.fr/20211130/what-is-the-le-touquet-treaty-and-why-do-french-politicians-want-to-scrap-it/">annoyance</a> that the UK contributions thus far have not covered the cost of policing the French coastline. The new agreement comes after a period of poor relations, and a significantly increased financial settlement so soon after the previous increase suggests the UK has accepted France’s position.</p>
<p>But the incremental changes to immigration patrols are mainly to maintain the UK-France partnership, and on their own are unlikely to have any significant effect on boat crossings. The home secretary conceded this will not “fix” the problem, unlike her predecessor who promised 100% of small boats <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/15/france-uk-migrant-crisis-priti-patel">would be stopped</a>.</p>
<h2>Taking back control</h2>
<p>The underlying issues date back further than the referendum or Britain’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/07/tories-myth-migrant-crisis-brexit-immigration-centre">exit from the EU</a>. The current backlog on decisions over asylum claims has been building rapidly. While numbers claiming asylum since 2017 are up by 130%, (still much lower than in France) the backlog has quadrupled. But this has happened before: there was also a <a href="https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/asylum-backlog">massive backlog in 2000</a>.</p>
<p>However, Brexit was famously about “taking back control”. For many who voted in the referendum, this was about the power to control immigration and stop free movement. This deal provides clear and compelling evidence that the way the UK chose to leave the EU actually meant a reduction in the ability to control irregular migration, leaving only security measures which pose significant threat to life. France’s position in the bilateral relationship may have been strengthened, but neither country emerges untainted from the human tragedy unfolding in the channel.</p>
<p>The deal underlines one real and significant impact of Brexit on immigration governance. There was nothing to replace the Dublin agreements which allowed the UK to return people to France. This was a political choice made during the Brexit negotiations. This new deal is therefore far from comprehensive. It makes no mention of anything that could replace the previous arrangement, which required France to accept returns.</p>
<p>Increased crossings are inherently more dangerous and mean a need for emergency humanitarian assistance. Instead, the government has chosen to intensify a punitive, law enforcement approach. The result is more tragic loss of life, such as the death of at least 27 people on <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/11/1106562">November 24 2021</a> attempting to cross the channel in a small dinghy. This escalation is a consequence of “successfully” closing other routes to the UK. It confirms what we have seen at Europe’s southern periphery and at the US-Mexico border: if governments reduce opportunities for people to cross borders, they will take ever more dangerous routes. A progressively securitised border – like the one outlined in the France deal – will simply accelerate this.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194763/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Balch has previously received funding from a range of sources, including the AHRC, ESRC, JRF, and British Academy, for research relating to immigration, forced labour and human trafficking. </span></em></p>Leaving the EU has meant leaving a series of agreements on immigration.Alex Balch, Professor, Department of Politics, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1942292022-11-11T16:42:44Z2022-11-11T16:42:44ZUK immigration: creating a spectacle around people seeking asylum generates fear and chaos, not solutions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494835/original/file-20221111-12-eiov8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C8%2C1075%2C682&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Suella Braverman's Chinook flight to an immigration holding facility in Kent is the latest move in a decade of border spectacle.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.alamy.com/home-secretary-suella-braverman-arrives-in-a-chinook-helicopter-for-a-visit-to-the-manston-immigration-short-term-holding-facility-located-at-the-former-defence-fire-training-and-development-centre-in-thanet-kent-picture-date-thursday-november-3-2022-image488757653.html?imageid=B7E6314D-8A9D-451A-8480-5F9D59BB2ACF&p=309277&pn=1&searchId=c66b67e14cc550a1bb3141aca67caf69&searchtype=0">Gareth Fuller / PA images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the Home Office left a group of people seeking asylum <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/nov/02/home-office-leaves-asylum-seekers-from-manston-stranded-in-central-london">stranded at London’s Victoria Station</a> last week, the scenes were stark. Hungry, cold and disoriented, they had been transported from Manston immigration centre, where 4,000 people were being crammed into a space built for 1,600.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.kentonline.co.uk/thanet/news/violence-erupts-in-squalid-conditions-at-manston-276556/">Outbreaks of illness and reports of abuse</a> are just part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-uks-asylum-system-is-in-crisis-but-the-government-not-refugees-is-to-blame-193670">increasingly dire situation</a> at Manston, and in the UK’s immigration system more generally.</p>
<p>The images brought to mind scenes from 2015-16 when <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2016/05/529462?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqqKh8uKe-wIV0MLtCh2AKgAgEAAYAiAAEgKFwvD_BwE">unprecedented numbers of people</a> fleeing conflict and poverty arrived by boat at <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-italy-idUSKBN14J1GE">Europe’s southern borders</a>. They also echo the lines of refugees, freezing and hungry, who had made their way to eastern European borders, arriving at train stations in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/reporters-notebook/migrants/budapest-s-keleti-train-station-has-become-a-de-facto-refugee-camp#:%7E:text=The%20scene%20at%20the%20Keleti,and%20along%20its%20underground%20passageways.">Hungary</a> and later to the north in <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/11/27/from-roma-to-refugees-swedens-impossible-choices">Sweden</a>. </p>
<p>They are an extreme contrast with the images of Home Secretary Suella Braverman arriving at Manston <a href="https://uk.news.yahoo.com/suella-braverman-makes-20-mile-191755635.html">by military helicopter</a> – a patently unnecessary method of transportation for somewhere just a few hours’ drive from London. </p>
<p>But as disturbing as these images are, they come as no surprise. The Conservative government, in power for 12 years, has <a href="https://irr.org.uk/article/deadly-crossings/">progressively militarised</a> its approach to migrants and used spectacle to do so. </p>
<p>What is happening now is fundamentally a problem <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-uks-asylum-system-is-in-crisis-but-the-government-not-refugees-is-to-blame-193670?fbclid=IwAR3YQ0HT3HCgT0J9nJQRxtx1b4tRtP82fmszRYlHVNS3mY6pbzEM-RHxDqk">created by the government itself</a>. As I wrote <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315720975/gendered-harm-structural-violence-british-asylum-system-victoria-canning">five years ago</a>, every policy decision, every legislative shift, could have had other outcomes. Instead, by presenting situations that could have been managed as unmanageable, the government has been able to justify ever harsher border policies.</p>
<h2>Creating a spectacle</h2>
<p>Every aspect of Braverman’s recent visit to the Kent centre was calculated. The military imagery complemented her <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/nov/01/bravermans-invasion-claim-not-backed-by-facts-say-experts">own choice of words</a> to convey the message that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/01/an-invasion-suella-braverman-refugee-crisis-governments-own-making">Britain is being “invaded”</a>.</p>
<p>This strategy is best described as “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01419870.2013.783710?journalCode=rers20">border spectacularisation</a>”. This is the tactic of making a scene, drawing attention to immigration in a way that encourages the public to equate “migrant” with “illegal”. In Braverman’s approach there is an added aesthetic of military control, a grandiose symbol of invasion and protection when no such situation was present.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/suella-bravermans-talk-of-a-refugee-invasion-is-a-dangerous-political-gambit-gone-wrong-193638">Suella Braverman's talk of a refugee 'invasion' is a dangerous political gambit gone wrong</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This strategy was central in a defining and controversial image of the Brexit referendum. The pro-Leave UK Independence Party, helmed by Nigel Farage, brought out a poster featuring <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/16/nigel-farage-defends-ukip-breaking-point-poster-queue-of-migrants">queues of refugees</a> and “breaking point” in big red capitals. </p>
<p>Farage might have been politically peripheral (if not publicly) when he stood in front of that image. But his message has nonetheless been adopted into policy. Bolstered by the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/22/contents/enacted">Immigration Acts of 2014</a> <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2016/19/contents/enacted">and 2016</a>, the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 has now made it almost impossible to legitimately seek asylum in the UK. It is a direct undermining of our pledge to uphold the 1951 Refugee Convention.</p>
<p>We should expect to see more of this as the government rallies to reduce the arrivals of people on small boats. Harsh measures need public consensus, and as history has taught us, there is no better way to do so than by creating a mood of risk and fear.</p>
<p>These are familiar strategies in other countries with ever stricter border policies. In 2017, Denmark’s former minister of immigration, integration and housing, Inger Støjberg, had to be evacuated by security guards during a visit she made to the Sjælsmark deportation centre. Tensions rose when some of the detainees, whose claims for asylum had been rejected, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5053737/Minister-flees-mob-asylum-seekers-immigration-centre.html">cornered her in her car</a>. </p>
<p>Støjberg, who was later <a href="https://www.euronews.com/2021/12/13/inger-st-jberg-denmark-s-ex-immigration-minister-convicted-of-impeachment-over-asylum-poli">jailed for enacting illegal asylum policies</a>, was instrumental in facilitating unlivable conditions for people seeking asylum. She <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/03/world/europe/denmark-migrants-island.html">made headlines</a> with her comments that migrants were unwanted in Denmark, and would be made to feel that.</p>
<p>By 2021, Denmark had become the first country in Europe to consider <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/05/denmark-plans-to-send-asylum-seekers-to-rwanda-unconscionable-and-potentially-unlawful/">offshoring its asylum process</a>. Controversially, the prime minister and leader of the Social Democrats Mette Frederiksen – otherwise often lauded for progressive policies – has now implemented a <a href="https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/29842/denmark-aims-for-zero-asylum-seekers">“net zero” approach</a> to refugees. This is the clear path Britain has also taken, with little regard for our international obligations on refugee rights. </p>
<h2>Missed opportunities</h2>
<p>Politicians have long seized on periods of significant instability to encourage anti-migrant sentiment. When the first British border control laws were formalised in the Aliens Act of 1905, the government’s aim was to reduce “undesirable” migration. The main targets were Jewish refugees fleeing pogroms in Russia, as well as other eastern European migrants. Xenophobia and antisemitism were effectively enshrined in policy. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.open.edu/openlearn/society-politics-law/timeline-the-criminalisation-asylum#1">Over the last century</a>, war, famine and political instability have been the bedrock of border securitisation globally. This approach to immigration policy – which can be seen <a href="https://www.statewatch.org/news/2019/december/eu-guarding-the-fortress/">across the EU</a> as well as in the UK – treats the movement of people across borders as a security threat rather than an opportunity for humanitarian assistance.</p>
<p>Central to border spectacularisation is that the situation being presented as unmanageable usually isn’t. The UK situation is a case in point. Since the 1980s in particular, successive British governments have sought to restrict immigration by conflating seeking asylum with criminalisation. More restrictive laws were passed by the New Labour government <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2531049">between 1997 and 2010</a> than in the nine preceding decades.</p>
<p>Our politicians speak now of <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/2022-06-18/home-office-begins-12-month-trial-electronically-tagging-channel-migrants">“alternatives” to detention</a> and addressing the increasing numbers of people arriving at Britain’s southern shores. But this country was already offered an alternative during 2015-16. </p>
<p>The German Chancellor at the time, Angela Merkel, and her French counterpart Francois Hollande <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/merkel-and-hollande-call-for-refugee-distribution-quotas-in-europe/a-18692857">proposed</a> quotas to ensure that EU states – of which the UK was still one – could equally respond to increased refugee applications. But the UK <a href="https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publications/border-mismanagement-ignorance-and-denial">deliberately ignored</a> this opportunity for collaboration, and as a result went statistically largely unaffected by the greatest mass movement of people since the second world war.</p>
<p>Had the then-home secretary Theresa May agreed to those Franco-German proposals, the situation in the UK today might look different. Instead, 12 years of Conservative governance has pushed narratives that dehumanise vulnerable people, and turned the border into a spectacle. These tactics have failed for all parties, and the harms are resting firmly on people who have already faced persecution.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194229/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victoria Canning has previously received funding from ESRC and The British Academy. She is affiliated with Statewatch. </span></em></p>Recent scenes at Victoria Station and Manston immigration centre are one way the government drives anti-migration sentiment.Victoria Canning, Associate Professor of Criminology, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1913632022-09-28T16:13:12Z2022-09-28T16:13:12ZLeicester’s unrest is a problem for the whole city, not just Hindu and Muslim communities<p>Since late August, the city of Leicester in England has seen violent confrontations between groups of Hindu and Muslim men. The situation escalated on September 17 when about 200 Hindu men <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11226837/Moment-hundreds-march-Leicester-amid-violent-clashes-Hindus-Muslims.html">marched</a> through a Muslim-majority area of east Leicester. Wearing masks, hoodies and balaclavas, they chanted “Jai Shri Ram” (meaning “Hail Lord Ram”), a phrase <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/02/13/jai-shri-ram-india-hindi/">synonymous with Hindu nationalist violence</a> in India. </p>
<p>In response, groups of Muslim men gathered in the area. A flag was forcibly removed from a Hindu mandir (temple). Bottles and other missiles were thrown. Further violence ensued the following evening when the outer wall of a mosque was graffitied and a Hindu flag was burned.</p>
<p>Leicestershire police <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/18/police-community-leaders-crowds-leicester">called for calm</a> and at least 47 people have been arrested. Mayor Peter Soulsby has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/22/leicester-mayor-announces-independent-inquiry-into-city-violence">announced</a> an independent review into what caused this disturbance. </p>
<p>Soulsby <a href="https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/independent-review-leicester-disorder-help-7621077">reportedly</a> expects the review to make immediate headway. My research into unrest in Bradford in 2001 shows that an official response that sacrifices complexity in favour of quick solutions only serves to attribute blame at the expense of real understanding. </p>
<p>I <a href="https://issuu.com/drchrisallen/docs/fair_bradford_report_2003">investigated</a> the 2001 disturbances in Bradford, when up to 1,000 young men of South Asian and Muslim heritage battled hundreds of police officers, following a banned march by the far-right National Front in the city earlier in the day. Not only was there pressure to explain why the disturbances had happened but also pressure to find solutions. This <a href="https://tedcantle.co.uk/pdf/communitycohesion%20cantlereport.pdf">resulted</a> in the disturbances being largely blamed on the city’s Muslims, the lives they lived and the values they adhered to. </p>
<p>The sustained and deliberate provocation of white far-right groups, meanwhile, was overlooked. So too, like almost every other disturbance involving minority communities, a host of social, political and economic factors.</p>
<p>In Leicester, no single group has, as yet, been blamed. However, there is a similar reluctance to dig into the complexity of the situation. Though proactive in communicating information about its policing of the disturbances, Leicestershire Police has referred, not specifically to Hindus or Muslims, but to “the community”. </p>
<p>Temporary Chief Constable Rob Nixon has variously thanked “the community for their ongoing support”, made reference to a “community meeting”, expressed gratitude to “the community who have joined us in calling for calm” and reiterated his commitment to working “alongside community leaders” to find solutions.</p>
<p>Political geographer Arshad Isakjee <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-there-is-no-such-thing-as-the-muslim-community-33862">has shown</a> applying the notion of “community” to ethnic and religious minorities makes the lazy assumption that ethnic minorities have more in common with each other than white or Christian communities do. </p>
<p>What’s more, it homogenises all people deemed to be within the group in question, thereby “othering” them as distinct from anyone outside that group. In other words, the problem becomes “their problem”, not “ours”. The onus is put on them to provide “solutions” to what is actually a vast array of social problems. </p>
<p>Community groups and community leaders do of course exist, in Leicester as elsewhere. But it is entirely possible that they may be oblivious to what is happening or out of touch with those outside of their immediate circles of influence. This is especially true of religious leaders who are unlikely to engage those who do not attend the same places of worship or who practice their faith differently. </p>
<h2>Blaming outsiders</h2>
<p>On September 20, Hindu and Muslim religious leaders issued a <a href="https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/we-not-you-succeed-leicesters-7605808">joint statement</a>, describing Hindus and Muslims as “a family” who share a city that is “a beacon of diversity and community cohesion”. It echoed the increasingly popular explanation that the trouble was instigated by outsiders, bolstered by media reports that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/22/leicester-mayor-announces-independent-inquiry-into-city-violence">eight of the 18 people</a> arrested on September 18, 2022 did not reside in Leicestershire. </p>
<p>“We together call upon the inciters of hatred to leave our city alone,” the joint statement said. “Leicester has no place for any foreign extremist ideology that causes division.” Soulsby made the same point when announcing the inquiry, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/22/leicester-mayor-announces-independent-inquiry-into-city-violence">saying</a> that it would be necessary to investigate whether the disturbances were “motivated by extreme ideologies imported from elsewhere”.</p>
<p>Some will assume this to be Islamist extremism. Despite there being no evidence to support such an assumption, research shows that <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/1765-the-muslims-are-coming">a key trope of Islamophobia</a> is the conflation of all things Islam with extremism. The mere involvement of Muslims will be evidence enough for some to jump to such a conclusion. </p>
<p>However, it is necessary – given the slogans chanted in Leicester and wider concerns <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/20/what-is-hindu-nationalism-and-who-are-the-rss">dating back to 2019</a> – to also examine the extent to which Hindu nationalist ideologies or “<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-one-atheist-laid-the-foundation-of-contemporary-hindu-nationalism-169130">Hindutva</a>” is causing tensions outside of India’s borders. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09584935.2014.1001721">Research</a> shows Hindutva sentiment has been on the rise in Britain since 2014. This far-right ideology promotes hatred towards all non-Hindu <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/on-religion/the-violent-toll-of-hindu-nationalism-in-india">religious minorities</a> and <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/02/13/jai-shri-ram-india-hindi/">Muslims in particular</a>. </p>
<p>Despite this, local media has begun to distance the city’s established Hindu communities from blame. Instead it <a href="https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/news-opinion/what-led-ugly-scenes-violence-7603138">cites wide claims</a> that Hindu nationalism has been imported into the city by recent migrants from India.</p>
<p>For two decades, Leicester has presented itself as the most ethnically harmonious city in Britain. This differentiates it from cities such as Birmingham or Bradford, which have seen disturbances involving ethnic and religious minorities. Blaming outsiders and imported ideologies has the potential to protect Leicester’s reputation. </p>
<p>Soulsby has <a href="https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/city-mayor-baffled-violence-peaceful-7601506">reportedly</a> said to be baffled by the violence. To believe that such things could never happen in Leicester suggests either wilful ignorance or collective denial at the level of the city’s leadership. To ensure that all the different people that make up the city, as well as the problems they face, can be both understood and responded to, this needs to change.</p>
<p>The review offers a crucial opportunity to actually understand what is happening. There needs to be a full recognition that communities are not homogenous. Whether in Leicester or elsewhere, neither Muslim nor Hindu communities are one-dimensional or singular. </p>
<p>There also needs to be a recognition that the problems experienced by religious communities are not necessarily religious. Their lives are impacted by socio-economic and socio-political factors that transcend ethnic and religious identities.</p>
<p>Further, the impact of the global on the local cannot be overlooked, as the influence of Hindutva in Leicester, as <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203837054-11/western-hindutva-hindu-nationalism-united-kingdom-north-america-north-america-christophe-jaffrelot-ingrid-therwath">elsewhere in Britain</a> demonstrates. To take this into account is not to apportion blame. Ignoring it, however, won’t help us fully understand what is happening.</p>
<p>Finally, the review cannot be premised on the basis that the solutions to the disturbances can be singularly found within Leicester’s communities. This is a collective issue that has the very real potential to have a detrimental impact on our collective futures.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191363/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Allen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Tensions between Hindus and Muslims have been growing in Leicester for months. The city’s leadership needs to take the time to understand why.Chris Allen, Associate Professor, School of Criminology, University of LeicesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1857582022-07-28T12:25:13Z2022-07-28T12:25:13ZWestern countries are shipping refugees to poorer nations in exchange for cash<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475506/original/file-20220721-24-ynnef4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=595%2C109%2C3967%2C3030&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta shakes hands with U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/rwandan-foreign-minister-vincent-biruta-r-shakes-hands-with-news-photo/1239993628?adppopup=true">Cyril Ndegeya/Xinhua via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The U.K. government was due to begin its first deportation flight to remove asylum-seekers to the East African country of Rwanda on June 14, 2022, exactly two months after signing the <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/rwanda-uk-sign-major-deal-on-asylum-seekers-amid-criticism/2564054">U.K.-Rwanda agreement</a>. The asylum-seekers were from several <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/6/8/uk-rwanda-deportation-refugees">war-torn and politically unstable countries</a>, including Syria, Sudan and Iran. </p>
<p>Each year, thousands of people – many fleeing repressive governments or poverty – attempt to cross the English Channel in fragile boats in the hope of starting a new life in the U.K.</p>
<p>Boris Johnson, the U.K. prime minister, defended the U.K.-Rwanda deal in June 2022, saying it would “<a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/britains-boris-johnson-defends-migrant-deal-on-rwanda-visit">remove the illegal cross-Channel trafficking of people whose lives are being put at risk</a>.”</p>
<p>In exchange for Rwanda receiving the deportees, the U.K. has paid the country <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/united-kingdom-great-britain-and-northern-ireland/uk-rwanda-agreement-represents-another-blow">about US$142 million</a> to cover the initial costs of operating the program as well as economic development projects in Rwanda. </p>
<p>The U.K. deportees were expected to <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/rwanda-uk-sign-major-deal-on-asylum-seekers-amid-criticism/2564054">integrate their lives into Rwandan social communities</a>. </p>
<p>But the first Rwanda deportation flight did not take off as planned. </p>
<h2>Deterring refugees and asylum-seekers</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.echr.coe.int/Pages/home.aspx?p=home">European Court of Human Rights</a>, the regional judicial human rights body in Europe, issued what are called <a href="https://theconversation.com/rwanda-deportations-what-is-the-european-court-of-human-rights-and-why-did-it-stop-the-uk-flight-from-taking-off-185143">interim urgent measures</a> to stop the scheduled flights. </p>
<p>Such measures are most often issued in cases where there is <a href="https://ijrcenter.org/european-court-of-human-rights/">imminent risk of death or torture</a>. </p>
<p>Member states are bound by the decisions of the Court, and its rulings are enforced by the Committee of Ministers of the <a href="https://www.coe.int/en/web/about-us/who-we-are">Council of Europe</a> – Europe’s leading human rights organization.</p>
<p>But instead of abiding by the decision, the U.K. government not only <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/253313d2-cc88-406e-8cc4-da48e66781a4">stressed its commitment to deportation flights</a>, it also signaled its intention to pull out of the European Court of Human Rights.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.american.edu/sis/faculty/sajjad.cfm">scholar of refugees and postwar reconstruction</a>, I see the deportation flights to Rwanda as part of a growing list of what are euphemistically known as <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/233150241700500103">migrant deterrence practices</a>. These practices are used by Western countries to deter future migration of mainly people of color from countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa and Oceania, collectively known as the Global South. </p>
<p>In exchange for money paid to the receiving country, asylum-seekers are sent to those poorer countries to enable wealthier nations to circumvent international legal obligations to those seeking asylum.</p>
<h2>Beyond Rwanda</h2>
<p>The use of countries like Rwanda by Western states is on the rise. </p>
<p>The recent <a href="https://immigrationforum.org/article/explainer-the-migrant-protection-protocols/">U.S.-Mexico Migrant Protection Protocol</a> and the U.S.-Guatemala <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/07/30/trumps-safe-third-country-agreement-with-guatemala-is-a-lie/">“third country safe” agreement</a> follow a similar principle. </p>
<p>Since 1992, Australia has had <a href="https://time.com/13682/australia-asylum-seeker-policy-compared-to-guantanamo/">a mandatory detention policy</a> for “unauthorized” arrivals, which have included asylum-seekers. </p>
<p>Since 2001, it has also been <a href="https://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/publication/australias-refugee-policy-overview">removing asylum-seekers</a> to Manus Island in Papua New Guinea and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/10/a-short-history-of-nauru-australias-dumping-ground-for-refugees">Nauru</a> – a poor island country in the Pacific Ocean – for processing. </p>
<p>This has been the case even if arrivals applied for asylum in mainland Australia immediately upon arrival. </p>
<p>According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, “<a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-au/news/press/2021/7/60f558274/unhcr-statement-on-8-years-of-offshore-asylum-policy.html">externalization of Australia’s asylum obligations has undermined the rights of those seeking safety and protection and significantly harmed their physical and mental health</a>.”</p>
<p>European countries have also been pursuing similar programs with <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369183X.2022.2061930">Libya</a>, <a href="https://comparativemigrationstudies.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40878-019-0128-4">Morocco</a>, <a href="https://euobserver.com/migration/154812">Egypt, Tunisia</a> and West African nations such as <a href="https://www.asileproject.eu/eu-external-migration-management-policies-in-west-africa/">Nigeria</a>. </p>
<p>They each provide financial aid packages to the respective low-income countries in exchange for preventing migrant mobility and absorbing deported asylum-seekers. </p>
<p>Thus far, <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/austria-tells-europe-to-imitate-uks-rwanda-migrant-deal-7trf5p3w6">Austria</a>,
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/apr/15/sending-uk-asylum-seekers-to-rwanda-will-save-money-says-minister">Denmark and the Flemish far-right in Belgium have welcomed</a> the U.K.-Rwanda agreement with the hope that more European states will seek partnerships with countries outside the continent to address irregular immigration. </p>
<p>Johnson’s <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-62070755">resignation</a> on July 7, 2022, is not expected to halt the U.K. government’s plans to continue deportations to Rwanda. But in a new turn of events, Rwanda said on July 22 that it can only <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/07/22/rwanda-can-hold-just-200-channel-migrants-cant-stop-returning/">accommodate 200 deported asylum-seekers</a> and will not be able to stop their efforts to cross the English Channel again.</p>
<h2>The 2022 Nationality and Borders Act</h2>
<p>Deportations to Rwanda are part of the U.K.’s <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/36/contents/enacted">2022 Nationality and Borders Act</a>, a law that drastically changed citizenship and asylum rules in the U.K. </p>
<p>In addition to deportations, the act allows the government to <a href="https://theconversation.com/stripping-british-citizenship-the-governments-new-bill-explained-173547">strip citizenship</a> from British people without notice for reasons related to, among other things, national security or counterterrorism. </p>
<p>In the U.K., the reasons to strip citizenship can be <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1743872116655305">defined broadly</a> and may affect about <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2021/12/exclusive-british-citizenship-of-six-million-people-could-be-jeopardised-by-home-office-plans">6 million Britons from immigrant backgrounds</a>.</p>
<p>The 2022 Nationality and Borders Act also allows for the criminal prosecution of those who cross the English Channel on small boats to seek asylum. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/">U.N. Refugee Agency</a> has criticized the legislation on which the act is based for being at “<a href="https://www.unhcr.org/uk/615ff04d4.pdf">odds with the United Kingdom’s international obligations under the Refugee Convention</a>.” These obligations include “not expelling refugees who are lawfully in the territory except on grounds of national security or public order.”</p>
<h2>Back into chaos</h2>
<p>Deportations under such conditions are controversial because they are violations of the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Issues/Migration/GlobalCompactMigration/ThePrincipleNon-RefoulementUnderInternationalHumanRightsLaw.pdf">principle of non-refoulement</a> in international refugee law. </p>
<p>The goal of the principle is to prevent individuals from being returned to countries where they have fled and may still be in danger of torture, persecution or death.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="a police officer stands on the beach and watches people get off of a lifeboat." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475539/original/file-20220721-24-woz2tj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475539/original/file-20220721-24-woz2tj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475539/original/file-20220721-24-woz2tj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475539/original/file-20220721-24-woz2tj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475539/original/file-20220721-24-woz2tj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475539/original/file-20220721-24-woz2tj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475539/original/file-20220721-24-woz2tj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A British police officer stands guard as migrants disembark from a lifeboat after they were picked up at sea while attempting to cross the English Channel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/british-police-officer-stands-guard-on-the-beach-of-news-photo/1241322925?adppopup=true">Ben Stansall / AFP/via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite this, the U.K. and other European countries have continued to deport asylum-seekers to such places.</p>
<p>Between 2007 and 2016, <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/politics/uk-underestimates-number-of-young-deported-to-war-zones/519001">the U.K. deported</a> 2,748 young people to war-torn and unstable countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Libya and Syria. </p>
<p>At least <a href="https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2015-07-16/schooled-in-britain-deported-to-danger-uk-sends-600-former-child-asylum-seekers-back-to-afghanistan">605 of them were Afghans</a> who had arrived unaccompanied as asylum-seeking children from their war-ravaged country.</p>
<p>According to Amnesty International, many of the deportees face <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/european-governments-return-nearly-10000-afghans-risk-death-and-torture-new-report">arbitrary detention, kidnapping, torture and even death</a> in the the countries where they’re sent. </p>
<p>In addition, studies have shown deportations like the kind that have taken place in Europe have caused long-term damage. </p>
<p>These include <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00148/full">undue burdens</a> on family members, such as loss of family income to meet basic needs, <a href="https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2021/reports-highlight-the-harms-faced-by-uk-families-threatened-with-a-family-members-deportation">family separation</a> that causes psychological damage including depression and trauma, especially in children. </p>
<h2>Rwanda’s acceptance of asylum-seekers</h2>
<p>In recent years, Rwanda has become a host country for approximately <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/rwanda/unhcr-operational-update-rwanda-february-2022">130,000 refugees</a> from around East Africa, particularly from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi.</p>
<p>In addition, between 2013 and 2018, Israel paid <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-pay-rwanda-5000-every-african-refugee-it-accepts">$5,000 for every African migrant deported to Rwanda</a> under a “voluntary” migration agreement. </p>
<p>Israel made a <a href="https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4424022,00.html">similar arrangement with Uganda</a>. Under the terms of the controversial arrangement, several thousand Sudanese and Eritrean asylum-seekers had to <a href="https://blogs.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-criminology/centreborder-criminologies/blog/2018/10/moving-under">choose between immigration detention</a> in Israel or to “voluntarily” agree to be deported to Rwanda and Uganda. </p>
<p>Many of those deported to Rwanda have consistently <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2018-02-02/ty-article/asylum-seekers-who-left-israel-for-rwanda-warn-those-remaining-dont/0000017f-db59-d856-a37f-ffd97da60000">struggled with lack of documentation and poverty, and have mostly fled the country</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-61882542">attempted to return to Europe</a>. </p>
<p>Facing international and national criticism, the Israeli program was later <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/02/israel-agrees-un-deal-scrap-plan-deport-african-asylum-seekers">abandoned</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185758/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tazreena Sajjad does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A UK plan to move asylum seekers on its shores to Rwanda has been met with stiff opposition from human rights organizations. But the UK persists, and Rwanda is all too willing.Tazreena Sajjad, Senior Professorial Lecturer of Global Governance, Politics and Security, American University School of International ServiceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1856462022-06-30T12:22:00Z2022-06-30T12:22:00ZRacial wealth gaps are yet another thing the US and UK have in common<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470585/original/file-20220623-51459-drcbgs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Britain's Prince William speaks during the unveiling of the National Windrush Monument on June 22, 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/britains-prince-william-duke-of-cambridge-speaks-during-the-news-photo/1241451369?adppopup=true">John SibleyPOOL/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s an old saying that Britain and America are two countries separated by a common language. </p>
<p>But they are united by racial wealth gaps that formed at a similar time for related reasons. Black Britons of the “Windrush generation,” arriving in Britain from the Caribbean between 1948 and 1973, and Black Americas from the Great Migration of the 1940s-1970s encountered similar disadvantages that were reproduced in the last 50 years.</p>
<p>Today, examining household assets, Black Britons of Caribbean backgrounds have 20 pence on the £1 compared to white Britons. Black Britons of African background – more recently arrived in Britain – have just <a href="https://www.runnymedetrust.org/publications/the-colour-of-money">10 pence</a> on the £1 compared to white Britons. </p>
<p>In the U.S., Black Americans have assets about <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/wealth-inequality-and-the-racial-wealth-gap-20211022.htm">15 to 20 cents</a> on the $1 compared to whites. </p>
<p>This is in large part the result of policymakers in both countries putting up roadblocks to Black advancement at the time they instituted policies to grow the middle class.</p>
<p>In my view <a href="https://calscherm.com/">as a historian</a> of slavery, capitalism and African American inequality, it’s not just the long shadow of enslavement, which Britain abolished in its western colonies in 1833 and the U.S. ended in 1865 with passage of the 13th Amendment. </p>
<p>When Black members of the British Commonwealth moved to Britain starting in 1948 and African Americans moved from the South to the North and West, they encountered new obstacles. </p>
<p>The long struggle for equal job opportunities has had a lasting effect on the ability to accrue wealth and pass it on to subsequent generations.</p>
<h2>The British illusion of opportunity</h2>
<p>The moment Black opportunity in Britain opened up was June 22, 1948, when the British ship <a href="https://www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/national-maritime-museum/windrush-day">Empire Windrush</a> docked on the River Thames, disembarking 802 passengers of Caribbean background in England.</p>
<p>They led the first sustained Black migration, the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43782241">Windrush generation</a>, mostly Black and Asian, arriving in Britain between 1948 and 1973.</p>
<p>U.K. employers wanted their labor amid a post-World War II shortage. </p>
<p>About a third of Windrush passengers were veterans of the British forces who served in World War II and recruited by employers for skilled jobs. </p>
<p>Caribbean women, for instance, became vital to the new <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/">U.K. National Health Service</a> as nurses, cooks and cleaners, many <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/2694-the-heart-of-the-race">caring</a> for patients by night and families by day. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A bronze statue depicts a black man looking toward the sky while holding hands with his wife and child." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470579/original/file-20220623-51568-4m5qy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470579/original/file-20220623-51568-4m5qy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470579/original/file-20220623-51568-4m5qy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470579/original/file-20220623-51568-4m5qy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470579/original/file-20220623-51568-4m5qy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470579/original/file-20220623-51568-4m5qy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470579/original/file-20220623-51568-4m5qy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The National Windrush Monument, created by Jamaican artist Basil Watson, is unveiled at Waterloo Station in London on June 22, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-national-windrush-monument-created-by-jamaican-artist-news-photo/1241451640?adppopup=true">John Sibley/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But, as British journalist <a href="https://www.afuahirsch.com/">Afua Hirsch</a> argues, they faced persistent discrimination in housing and jobs. Employers wanted them as laborers, not neighbors, and they faced hostility from those determined to “<a href="https://tribunemag.co.uk/2019/11/keeping-britain-white">Keep England White</a>.”</p>
<p>When a Bristol bus company refused to employ Black conductors and drivers, Black workers counter-organized, staging a successful Bristol <a href="https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/section/civil-rights-movement/the-bristol-bus-boycott-of-1963">bus boycott</a> against employment discrimination. </p>
<p>Such action led to the <a href="https://uomhistory.com/2021/10/15/the-campaign-against-racial-discrimination-britains-answer-to-the-naacp%EF%BF%BC/">1964 Campaign Against Racial Discrimination</a>, which helped catalyze the 1965 <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/relationships/collections1/race-relations-act-1965/race-relations-act-1965/">U.K. Race Relations Act</a> banning public discrimination and made promoting hatred based on “colour, race, or ethnic or national origins” a crime. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, civil rights leaders such as <a href="https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/section/civil-rights-movement/how-olive-morris-fought-for-black-womens-rights-in-britain/">Olive Morris</a> fought for economic inclusion through organizations like the <a href="https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/10/the-making-of-britains-black-working-class">Black Workers Movement</a>. These efforts helped include Black workers in unionized industry and led to wage gains.</p>
<h2>The American allure of opportunity</h2>
<p>While the Windrush generation took shape, African Americans too were moving north and west in search of opportunity. Journalist Isabel Wilkerson <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/321/321351/the-warmth-of-other-suns/9780141995151.html">contends</a> that “the Great Migration had more in common with the vast movements of refugees from famine, war, and genocide in other parts of the world.”</p>
<p>In the three decades following the Great Depression, the American wage structure became more equal than at any time before or since, a process economic historians term “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2118322">The Great Compression</a>.” Between 1940 and 1960, the distance between earners in the top 10% and bottom 90% narrowed by a third. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black boy dressed in a shirt and tie stands near a black woman in front of car with their belongings tied to the top.car" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470595/original/file-20220623-52151-izb45a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470595/original/file-20220623-52151-izb45a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470595/original/file-20220623-52151-izb45a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470595/original/file-20220623-52151-izb45a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470595/original/file-20220623-52151-izb45a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470595/original/file-20220623-52151-izb45a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470595/original/file-20220623-52151-izb45a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An African American family leaving Florida during the Great Depression.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-african-american-family-leaving-florida-during-the-great-news-photo/2667542?adppopup=true">MPI/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But policies giving white Americans a boost up the ladder tended to hamstring African Americans.</p>
<p>Social Security <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v70n4/v70n4p49.html">initially excluded most Black workers</a>. Union wages rose, but African Americans were <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4300995/">underrepresented</a> in union jobs.</p>
<p>Home loan guarantees went to white families and specifically excluded Black-occupied properties in many U.S. cities. </p>
<p><a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/the-color-of-law">Redlining</a> was the practice of denying loan guarantees to properties occupied by Black and other minority residents. It became a self-fulfilling prophesy of disinvestment and declining values. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, post-WWII programs to improve social mobility, like the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/index.html?dod-date=622">1944 Servicemen’s Readjustment Act</a>, or GI Bill, <a href="https://theconversation.com/gi-bill-opened-doors-to-college-for-many-vets-but-politicians-created-a-separate-one-for-blacks-126394">largely benefited white veterans</a> by expanding the middle class with job, college and home loan assistance. </p>
<p><a href="https://mattdelmont.com/">Historian Matthew F. Delmont</a> <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/624655/half-american-by-matthew-f-delmont">argues</a> that “by funneling resources to white veterans and denying loans to Black veterans, the GI Bill intensified the racial wealth gap and shared the terrain of opportunity in America for decades after the war.”</p>
<p>In the 1960s, legal barriers gave way to what African American Studies scholar <a href="https://aas.princeton.edu/people/keeanga-yamahtta-taylor">Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor</a> calls “<a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469663883/race-for-profit/">predatory inclusion</a>” in home ownership, <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674237476">finance</a> and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2329496516686620">education</a>. </p>
<p>By the time Black Americans began to narrow <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w30101/w30101.pdf">a persistent wealth gap</a>, the economy was paying diminishing returns to workers. </p>
<p>The wealth-to-earnings ratio <a href="https://eml.berkeley.edu/%7Esaez/saez-zucmanNBER14wealth.pdf">rose</a> in the U.S. <a href="https://voxeu.org/article/capital-back">and</a> U.K. after 1973, and Black Americans who had recently climbed one or two rungs on the ladder started to move backward relative to whites. </p>
<h2>Britain’s failed promise</h2>
<p>By the 1970s, multicultural Britain had taken shape. As <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of-advanced-studies/professor-paul-gilroy">British sociologist Paul Gilroy</a> <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/T/bo3620902.html">argues</a>, Black Britain, including people of African and South Asian descent, had become a complex of class and cultures as diverse as England’s imperial geography that once included colonies in Asia, Africa and the Americas.</p>
<p>But diversity didn’t mean inclusion. Just as Black working-class Britons were making gains in unionized industry, that rung of the ladder cracked.</p>
<p>Starting in the late 1970s, factories closed or moved offshore, and ways into the middle class narrowed as the U.K. and U.S. pursued a strategy of more privatization and less government spending on social services. </p>
<p>Union strength declined across sectors, and worker wages stagnated. Many Black Britons were trapped in segregated neighborhoods and didn’t reap gains from <a href="https://www.allagents.co.uk/house-prices-adjusted/">rising home values</a>. Today, 2 in 3 white British families own homes <a href="https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/housing/owning-and-renting/home-ownership/latest#by-ethnicity">compared</a> to 2 in 5 Black British families of Caribbean background and 1 in 5 Black British families of African background. </p>
<p>By the 2000s, those who lacked capital or technological skills in Britain had a hard time <a href="https://iariw.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Sonia_Paper.pdf">climbing</a> up the economic ladder. Income inequality <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/bulletins/householdincomeinequalityfinancial/financialyearending2020provisional">soared</a> between 1979 and the early 2000s, reaching levels not seen since <a href="https://www.chartbookofeconomicinequality.com/inequality-by-country/united-kingdom/">before</a> WWII.</p>
<h2>America’s reinvention of inequality</h2>
<p>Meanwhile in the United States, legal barriers fell while the economy changed in ways that disadvantaged Black workers in new ways. In 1979 the average Black worker <a href="https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/regional-economist/july-2013/changes-in-the-racial-earnings-gap-since-1960">earned</a> 82 cents on the dollar compared to white counterparts. By 2000, the earnings gap widened to 77 cents on the dollar. </p>
<p>The Great Recession of 2008 destroyed <a href="https://www.epi.org/blog/the-great-recession-education-race-and-homeownership/">half</a> of Black wealth, and in 2015 an estimated 1.5 million Black American men were <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/20/upshot/missing-black-men.html">missing</a> from the economy, having died early, been incarcerated or shut out of the employment market – 8.2% of working-age African American men compared with 1.6% of white men in the same age range. </p>
<p>Despite wealth gains since 2016, Black wealth was more vulnerable and <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/disparities-in-wealth-by-race-and-ethnicity-in-the-2019-survey-of-consumer-finances-20200928">harder</a> to accumulate. </p>
<p>The earnings gap remains wide today.</p>
<p>Black women workers in the U.S. <a href="https://leanin.org/data-about-the-gender-pay-gap-for-black-women">earn 79 cents</a> on the dollar compared to white women, and Black men <a href="https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/compensation/pages/racial-wage-gaps-persistence-poses-challenge.aspx">earn</a> 87% of white men’s wages. </p>
<h2>Discrimination across the Atlantic</h2>
<p>In the U.K., just before the pandemic, Black Britons of African and Caribbean background <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/articles/ethnicitypaygapsingreatbritain/2019">earned</a> 85% and 87% of the wages of white Britons, respectively. </p>
<p>According to a study by two leading U.K. inequality think tanks, British women of color <a href="https://www.runnymedetrust.org/publications/broken-ladders">endure</a> “intersecting structural barriers and discrimination faced at every point of the career pipeline, from school to university to employment.” </p>
<p>U.K. wealth is largely white, <a href="https://assets-global.website-files.com/61488f992b58e687f1108c7c/61bcc1c736554228b543c603_The%20Colour%20of%20Money%20Report.pdf">resulting</a> from the “history of economic relations between Britain and the rest of the world, especially Africa, the Caribbean and Asia,” according to the <a href="https://www.runnymedetrust.org/">Runnymede Trust</a>, an inequality think tank. </p>
<p>Over the last 80 years, the underbelly of Britain and America is that both countries reinvented racial economic disadvantages. </p>
<p>Instead of making their economies fundamentally fair, racial exclusions gave way to inclusion that came with surcharges on opportunity while failing to rectify past wrongs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185646/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Calvin Schermerhorn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The legacy of racism in both the United States and the United Kingdom has impacted the ability of Blacks and other ethnic groups to accumulate wealth.Calvin Schermerhorn, Professor of History, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.