No Pass Laws Here! Internal Border Controls and the Global ‘Hostile Environment’

Abstract

This article explores internal border controls in 1980s Britain, examining how they were conceptualised and resisted by a group of activists, the No Pass Laws Here! Group. Drawing on archival research conducted at the Hull History Centre and the Institute of Race Relations and focusing analysis on the Group’s public-facing information leaflets and bulletins, this article explores how internal border controls created differentiated access to employment and the welfare state, targeting migrant and racialised residents and citizens. The No Pass Laws Here! Group’s framing and analysis, in particular their use of pass laws as a frame through which to apprehend the spread of internal border controls, this article argues, allows us to draw out the continuities between policies developed to maintain colonial rule and those present in the metropole.

Reproduction and the Expanding Border: Pregnant Migrants as a ‘Problem’ in the 2014 Immigration Act

“…(“grand” theories)’. The historical aspect is particularly salient, given the considerable influence exerted by past debates and practices around citizenship and migration on discourses, practices and policies today ( El-Enany, 2020 ; Medien, 2021 , 2022 ; Samantrai, 2002 ; Tyler, 2010 ). Moreover, the third level of context, that of the institution, is helpful in exploring the situatedness of NHS bordering policies and their relationship to discourses around reproduction.…”

“…While the 2014 Immigration Act significantly expanded NHS bordering, passport checks and charges for overseas visitors’ care were first introduced in 1982 ( Medien, 2021 ). As Medien (2021 , 2022 ) argues, this occurred within the context of the introduction and passage of the 1981 Nationality Act, which strengthened the association between Britishness and whiteness (see also El-Enany, 2020 ; Tyler, 2010 ). These charges and checks can therefore be read as targeting ethnic minorities, excluding them from a key element of the British welfare state, while subjecting them to surveillance, thereby further racialising the UK ‘national home’.…”

“…Furthermore, the establishment of the NHS depended upon the wealth built through the British Empire, and migrants from former colonies have historically made up, and continue to make up, a significant proportion of the NHS workforce. NHS bordering, and welfare bordering generally, can therefore be read as a continuation of imperial extraction, exploiting the wealth and labour of the former Empire while limiting former imperial subjects’ access to services ( El-Enany, 2020 ; Medien, 2021 , 2022 ). Additionally, Cassidy (2018) locates both visa checks and the introduction of the IHS in a wider project to maximise the economic benefits of tourism and migration to the UK.…”