Everyday Bordering, Belonging and the Reorientation of British Immigration Legislation

Hierarchies, scale, and privilege in the reproduction of national belonging

“…Today, the contemporary politics of belonging in Britain is one in which “pride in shared national belonging” and so‐called “British values” are promoted, often specifically to migrants and minorities, while racism and discrimination against them are sidelined (Kundnani, ). Alongside the production of a hostile environment for unwanted migrants that disproportionately affects racialised groups (Jones et al., ; Yuval‐Davis et al., ), widespread conflation of “immigrants” and “ethnic minorities” (Gilroy, ; Lentin, ), and untiring debate over the integration and loyalty of (some) migrants’ children and grandchildren, which in connecting them permanently to ancestral “homelands” positions these Britons as “forever non‐British and never belonging” (Raj, , p. 201), this politics reinforces the idea – made glaringly visible in the Brexit debates (Bhambra, ) – that some British people are more British than others.…”

“…Through 2016, the Brexit campaigns, debates, and vote to leave the European Union showed how Britain's citizens and residents are differently positioned within a national “hierarchy of belonging” (Wemyss, ), with some people understood to belong more, or more rightfully, than others (Bhambra, ). Although not a new argument (Back, ; Gilroy, ), this differential belonging has taken on renewed significance as domestic events and policies have repeatedly exposed the powerful symbolic boundaries that surround the British nation and hierarchies of belonging embedded within it (Bhambra, , ; de Noronha, ; Virdee & McGeever, ; Yuval‐Davis et al., ).…”

“…Existing research on boundaries and, to a lesser extent, on hierarchies of national belonging has interrogated their existence and negotiation from the perspective of migrants and ethnically minoritised groups (Back et al., ; Jacobson, ; Lulle et al., ; Phoenix, ; Vadher & Barrett, ) and examined their reproduction in discourse (Wemyss, , ), institutions (Aliverti, ), and policy (Jones et al., ; Yuval‐Davis et al., ). In contrast, this paper, based on interview narratives produced with white British middle‐class adults on the edge of London, draws attention away from the ethnic or immigrant “other” to focus on the ways that hierarchies of national belonging are reproduced by people whose belonging in and to Britain is relatively privileged.…”

Cross-Border Cooperation as Conflict Transformation: Promises and Limitations in EU Peacebuilding

“…They have become stranded at sea or in detention facilities where violations of human rights have been rampant. Within the EU Member States, populist and right-wing entrepreneurs have continued to fuel public anxiety around migration and fear of 'the Other' bringing borders to the centre of political debates, media and everyday life (Yuval-Davis, Wemyss, and Cassidy 2017).…”

Review of Humanitarian Refuge in the United Kingdom: Sanctuary, Asylum, and the Refugee Crisis

“…The 2014 and 2016 Immigration Acts were intended to “create a hostile environment” (Travis ) by expanding border controls in Britain in everyday life activities by requiring banks, driving licenses, hospitals, and landlords to do basic immigration checks. The intention was to restrict access to work, shelter, health care, and education (Yuval‐Davis, Wemyss, and Cassidy ). At the same time, the United Kingdom ring‐fenced the development aid budget used in part to support the humanitarian work of the UN in refugee camps in Africa and the Middle East (Ibrahim and Howarth ).…”