‘The island is full. Please don't come’: Narratives of austerity and migration in a UK citizenship class

Abstract

In the lead up to, and aftermath of, the UK referendum on its membership of the European Union, issues relating to migration and entitlement dominated public debates. In a ruthless campaign, the ‘Leave’ camp exploited the implementation of years of austerity policies by explicitly correlating their negative effects with supposedly high migrant numbers. Examining the discourses of scarcity, austerity and deservingness which prevailed during the referendum campaign, this article discusses the way in which UK citizenship classes act as spaces for both the reproduction and subversion of these narratives. On the one hand, migrants in the classes reproduce discourses which scapegoat other migrants for the effects of austerity. On the other, however, powerful messages about the fundamental human right to migrate are also championed.

Citizenship Models and Migrant Integration – Rethinking the Intersection of Citizenship and Migrant Integration Through (B)Ordering

“…2 FNIA; Kurt 2017b), though the security of a status is increasingly based on permanent impermanence. Indeed, current citizenship policies echo the narratives of austerity, which we find in and beyond the European context (Tuckett 2017). The increased demonisation of welfare benefit recipients as example, manifested in the current Swiss migration framework, supports (b)ordering approaches.…”

“…Territorial access and citizenship are granted increasingly as a privilege, rather than a right, underlined by discourses which shifted from depicting asylum seekers as fleeing war and persecution to being asylum shoppers, economic migrants, or potential terrorists (Vaughan-Williams 2008;Rosas 2006;Crawley and Skleparis 2018;Colombo 2017). There are tendencies to improve the sense of citizenship and community within societies (Walters 2004), while at the same time creating deterrence narratives for those deemed unworthy (Tuckett 2017) , visible through the enhancement of immigration controls, the focus to combat irregular entry and trafficking/smuggling (Walters 2004). The attempt to control unwanted immigration is embedded within racialised, classed and gendered logics (Achermann 2013;Khosravi 2010;Walters 2004), drawing heavily on discussions on 'migrant integration' (Schinkel 2018).…”