Coordinating internal immigration control in the UK

Abstract

Biographical notes: Lea Sitkin's academic research focuses on the organisation and effects of immigration controls, the relationship between neoliberalism, welfare and punishment and the development of precarious labour markets across Europe and the USA. Her doctoral research uses a comparative case study (UK and Germany) to interrogate materialist explanations for punitive transformations in immigration control in Europe. The thesis offers a historical analysis for why immigrant communities are policed differently in the two contexts. It also explores the role of underlying labour market variation (as described in the Varieties of Capitalism literature) on the construction of immigrants as vulnerable workers in the UK and Germany. Previous research has focused on the generalizability of Wacquant's Punishing the Poor (2009) to the European context. AbstractThe UK government has recently introduced measures to intensify the internal migration control regime by improving coordination between immigration authorities and third-party enforcement agents. The following paper describes the internal migration control regime in the UK, focusing on measures developed to impede irregular migrants' access to work, justice, healthcare, education and housing. It also explores the ways in which coordination between actors comprising the "immigration policing family" is hampered by administrative difficulties and, more fundamentally, by a lack of common goals. In response to these issues, successive UK governments have introduced sanctions for non-compliant enforcement agents, which are often discursively linked by immigration authorities to the notion of preventing third parties' exploitation of irregular migrants. However, ultimately it is the developing internal control regime which threatens irregular migrants' survival.

Immigration Raids and Racist State Violence

“…Critical and analytical literature on the rationales and functions of immigration enforcement in Britain has explored the construction and policing of internal borders (see, for example, Evans 2008;Sitkin 2014;Aliverti 2020). As this literature has made clear, while immigration raids have a long history (Gordon 1981), their frequency increased substantially in the latter decades of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first.…”

“…In their analysis of immigration raids, Corporate Watch (2018) suggest that raids are frequently carried out through two mechanisms-dawn raids and workplace raids-which operate alongside a range of other enforcement activities including on public transport, around bus and train stations and in public areas (the latter of which began to decrease after 2015) (Corporate Watch 2018: 66). Immigration raids carried out "early in the morning" are done so for "operational reasons," according to former Immigration Minister Liam Byrne (2007Byrne ( : 1827, who over a decade ago told Parliament that "in 2005 and 2006 there were 8,865 and 13,953 police supported operations respectively," including those carried out in this manner, and around 6,000 workplace raids per year between 2009and 2014(Corporate Watch 2018.…”

Searching for “Illegal” Junk in the Trunk

“…This flexibility makes them powerful street-level bureaucrats in charge of the final implementation of public policy (Lipsky, 2010). Many scholars have identified discretion-and more so the abuse of it (Weber, 2003;Motomura, 2011;Wadhia, 2015;Hernandez, 2013; Eagly, 2011; Reyes, 2012; Woude & Leun, in press)-as an important driver behind the process of crimmigration: the merger of crime control and immigration control (Stumpf, 2006(Stumpf, , 2011(Stumpf, , 2013Aliverti, 2014;Chacón, 2014;Sitkin, 2014;Spena, 2014).…”

Crimmigration checks in the internal border areas of the EU: Finding the discretion that matters

“…These police checks taking place in internal border areas are highly relevant in the light of the process of crimmigration ( Van der Woude and Van Berlo, 2015 ) – the increased merger of crime control and immigration control ( Aliverti, 2014 ; Chacón, 2009 , 2014 ; Sitkin, 2014 ; Spena, 2014 ; Stumpf, 2006 , 2011 , 2013 ). Both virtually and physically, borders are primary sites for authorities to distinguish between so-called ‘bona fide travelers’ and ‘crimmigrant others’, being a bridge for the former and a barrier to the latter ( Aas, 2011 , 2013 ; Barker, 2013 ; Stumpf, 2006 ; Van der Woude and Van Berlo, 2015 ).The growing body of scholarship studying practices of crimmigration seems to paint a rather grim picture: to a greater or a lesser extent, crimmigration seems to be present in many national contexts, with no exception for countries in the EU ( Barker, 2012 ; Bosworth, 2014 ; Bosworth and Guild, 2008 ; Mitsilegas, 2015 ; Staring, 2013 ; Van der Woude et al, 2014 ).…”

“…These police checks taking place in internal border areas are highly relevant in the light of the process of crimmigration (Van der Woude and Van Berlo, 2015) – the increased merger of crime control and immigration control (Aliverti, 2014; Chacón, 2009, 2014; Sitkin, 2014; Spena, 2014; Stumpf, 2006, 2011, 2013). Both virtually and physically, borders are primary sites for authorities to distinguish between so-called ‘bona fide travelers’ and ‘crimmigrant others’, being a bridge for the former and a barrier to the latter (Aas, 2011, 2013; Barker, 2013; Stumpf, 2006; Van der Woude and Van Berlo, 2015).…”