Book contents
- States of Ignorance
- States of Ignorance
- Copyright page
- Contents
- About the Editors and Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 States, Knowledge and Ignorance
- 2 The Post-war European State and (Irregular) Migration
- 3 The Invention of Illegal Immigration
- 4 (Im)perfect Control
- 5 From Ignorance to Illegalisation
- 6 Denial, Elucidation or Resignation? British and German State Responses to Unauthorised Migrants
- 7 To See or Not to See
- 8 European Integration and the Leap into the Unknown
- 9 Control Infrastructures and Ignorance
- Index
- References
5 - From Ignorance to Illegalisation
The Demise of the UK’s Non-individualised Immigration Control System, 1962–1971
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 November 2023
By
Book contents
- States of Ignorance
- States of Ignorance
- Copyright page
- Contents
- About the Editors and Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 States, Knowledge and Ignorance
- 2 The Post-war European State and (Irregular) Migration
- 3 The Invention of Illegal Immigration
- 4 (Im)perfect Control
- 5 From Ignorance to Illegalisation
- 6 Denial, Elucidation or Resignation? British and German State Responses to Unauthorised Migrants
- 7 To See or Not to See
- 8 European Integration and the Leap into the Unknown
- 9 Control Infrastructures and Ignorance
- Index
- References
Summary
Until the early 1970s, UK immigration rules did not include a category of ‘illegal’ immigration. This chapter traces the shift from this largely permissive immigration regime based on the use of caps and criteria, to the more individualised approach based on illegalisation and individual punishment that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It shows how this new, individualised approach was considered by officials and the Labour government as a necessary response to political expectations, rather than a means of better steering migration. The individualised approach also necessitated - and enabled - new forms of state knowledge of irregular migrants. However, a lack of operational commitment to this approach led to relatively lax implementation, and a residual issue of limited state knowledge of unauthorised migrants.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- States of IgnoranceGoverning Irregular Migrants in Western Europe, pp. 140 - 164Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023
References
Bailkin, Jordanna. 2008. ‘Leaving Home: The Politics of Deportation in Postwar Britain’. Journal of British Studies 47 (4): 852–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourbeau, Philippe. 2019. ‘Detention and Immigration: Practices, Crimmigration, and Norms’. Migration Studies 7 (1): 83–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Consterdine, Erica. 2016. ‘Community Versus Commonwealth: Reappraising the 1971 Immigration Act’. Immigrants & Minorities 35(1): 1–20.Google Scholar
Couper, Kristin, and Santamaria, Ulysses. 1984. ‘An Elusive Concept: The Changing Definition of Illegal Immigrant in the Practice of Immigration Control in the United Kingdom’. The International Migration Review 18 (3): 437–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De Genova, Nicholas. 2002. ‘Migrant “Illegality” and Deportability in Everyday Life’. Annual Review of Anthropology 31 (1): 419–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Genova, Nicholas, and Peutz, Nathalie, eds. 2010. The Deportation Regime: Sovereignty, Space, and the Freedom of Movement. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Deakin, Nicholas. 1971. ‘Citizens and Immigrants in Britain’. The Round Table 61 (242): 283–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frelick, Bill, Kysel, Ian M., and Podkul, Jennifer. 2016. ‘The Impact of Externalization of Migration Controls on the Rights of Asylum Seekers and Other Migrants’. Journal on Migration and Human Security 4 (4): 190–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, Randall. 1999. ‘The Kenyan Asians, British Politics, and the Commonwealth Immigrants Act, 1968’. The Historical Journal 42 (3): 809–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, Randall. 2000. Citizenship and Immigration in Post-war Britain: The Institutional Origins of a Multicultural Nation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helbling, Marc, and Leblang, David. 2019. ‘Controlling Immigration? How Regulations Affect Migration Flows’. European Journal of Political Research 58 (1): 248–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mainwaring, Cetta, and Silverman, Stephanie J. 2017. ‘Detention-as-Spectacle’. International Political Sociology 11 (1): 21–38.Google Scholar
Meer, Nasar. 2018. ‘Race Equality after Enoch Powell’. The Political Quarterly 89 (3): 417–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nolan, Mark Robert. 2013. Aspects of the New Commonwealth Immigration Question and Its Impacts: A Study in Policy Making and Elite Politics, 1968–1981. PhD dissertation, University of Hull.Google Scholar
Noronha, Luke de. 2020. Deporting Black Britons: Portraits of Deportation to Jamaica. Manchester: Manchester University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schofield, Camilla. 2013. Enoch Powell and the Making of Postcolonial Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slaven, Mike. 2022. ‘The Windrush Scandal and the Individualization of Postcolonial Immigration Control in Britain’. Ethnic and Racial Studies 45 (16): 49–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slaven, Mike, and Boswell, Christina. 2019. ‘Why Symbolise Control? Irregular Migration to the UK and Symbolic Policy-Making in the 1960s’. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 45 (9): 1477–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slaven, Mike, Casella Colombeau, Sara, and Badenhoop, Elisabeth. 2021. ‘What Drives the Immigration-Welfare Policy Link? Comparing Germany, France and the United Kingdom’. Comparative Political Studies 54 (5): 855–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Evan, and Marmo, Marinella. 2014. ‘The Myth of Sovereignty: British Immigration Control in Policy and Practice in the Nineteen-Seventies’. Historical Research 87 (236): 344–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tuckett, Anna. 2019. ‘Managing Paper Trails after Windrush: Migration, Documents and Bureaucracy’. Journal of Legal Anthropology 3 (2): 120–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whipple, Amy. 2009. ‘Revisiting the “Rivers of Blood” Controversy: Letters to Enoch Powell’. Journal of British Studies 48 (3): 717–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, Callum. 2015. ‘Patriality, Work Permits and the European Economic Community: The Introduction of the 1971 Immigration Act’. Contemporary British History 29 (4): 508–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar