NHS Apartheid: On resisting NHS charges for overseas visitor healthcare

Pregnant racialised migrants and the ubiquitous border: The hostile environment as a technology of stratified reproduction

“…Tyler's (2010) argument revolves around the 1981 British Nationality Act, which abolished Commonwealth migrants' right to British citizenship, even as immigration policy at that time (and at present) provided paths to settlement for white people of British ancestry living abroad. This discursively and legally disassociated British citizenship from the wider empire, strengthening an already existing association between Britishness and whiteness, and producing racialised Commonwealth migrants as an 'foreign' population (Tyler, 2010; see also El-Enany, 2020;Medien, 2021). This racialised biopolitics of citizenship serves to produce reproductive stratification, as 'successful citizens' are supported in their reproductive decision-making and deemed fit to reproduce the nation; while the reproductive practises of 'failed citizens' are constructed as threatening the national future (Erel, 2018;Erel et al, 2018;Gedalof, 2007;Lonergan, 2018;Yuval-Davis et al, 2005).…”

“…The resulting reproductive stratification is further refined by the interaction of these policies with racialised, gendered, and classed discourses around citizenship and belonging, as well as the personal circumstances of individual migrants. Expanding internal visa checks have tended to target racialised persons, and their use of government services and other resources necessary for reproduction (Medien, 2021;Yuval-Davis et al, 2019).…”

“…Internal visa checks have been expanding and multiplying in the UK since the late 1990s. Indeed, legislation permitting visa checks in hospitals was first passed in 1982, although it was not implemented after a prolonged anti-racist campaign ( Medien, 2021 ). The Immigration, Asylum, and Nationality Act 2006, for example, requires employers to undertake checks of their employees’ right to work in the UK, or face a penalty if they are found to be employing an undocumented worker.…”

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

“…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 ).…”

“…First, through tightening visa checks for secondary care, and introducing sanctions and incentives to ensure that eligible patients were charged for care (Department of Health, 2014); and second, through the introduction of the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) on work, family and student visas. 3 The legislation permitting visa checks and charging for secondary care had been in place since 1982, and checks had been carried out, albeit in an inconsistent manner, since 2006 (Medien, 2021;Pollock et al, 2005). The IHS was the more novel policy innovation, and served to redefine who could be considered 'at home' in the UK.…”