Abstract
This chapter explores the United Kingdom’s legacy of inhospitality and violence towards immigrants to situate the modern treatment of asylum seekers within the context of historical antipathy towards migrant groups, including those seeking refuge within Britain’s borders. It incorporates a review of historical legislation, such as the Aliens Act 1793, as it established early precedents still in use today, such as requirements that immigrants register with the police, the imposition of fines on carriers transporting immigrants without proper identification and an expansion of the country’s use of deportation to remove migrants deemed to be ‘illegal’. This chapter addresses parallels between the treatment of England’s medieval Jewish community and modern Britain’s structural violence towards asylum seekers, including their isolation in designated areas of the country, limitations on employment and forced deportation, and demonstrates the continued relevance of examining this period. This chapter concludes with an examination of the embedded racism, discrimination and violence underpinning the immigration legislation of the 1960s, which culminated in the Immigration Act 1971 and the British Nationality Act 1981.
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Notes
- 1.
The exclusion of ships carrying fewer than twenty foreign steerage passengers represented a significant loophole, which allowed a significant proportion of alien arrivals—nearly half by 1910—to avoid inspection (Pellew, 1989, p. 384).
- 2.
Shortly after the Liberal Party’s election win in early 1905, the Home Secretary, Herbert Gladstone, directed immigration officials to give migrants claiming entry on the grounds of religious or political persecution of the ‘benefit of the doubt’ when determining their suitability for entry (Bashford & McAdam, 2014, pp. 318–319).
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Hirschler, S.A. (2021). Britain’s Legacy of Inhospitality and Violence Towards Immigrants. In: Hostile Homes. Critical Criminological Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79213-8_2
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