{"id":38072,"date":"2023-09-24T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-24T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/?p=38072"},"modified":"2023-10-14T22:09:09","modified_gmt":"2023-10-14T21:09:09","slug":"embedding-racism-a-brief-history-of-border-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/society\/migration\/embedding-racism-a-brief-history-of-border-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Embedding racism: a brief history of border violence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When it comes to immigration, our politicians are rarely shy about manipulating figures, misrepresenting facts or dog-whistling racists. They deny centuries-long migration to and from Britain and intentionally obscure that \u2018border control\u2019 is a very recent invention. Concurrently, they claim Britain has a \u2018proud history\u2019 of \u2018welcoming migrants\u2019 \u2013 so claimed Priti Patel<\/a>, who as home secretary introduced legislation that would have barred her own parents<\/a> from the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politicians do this to create scapegoats, who distract from policy failures, and to stoke xenophobic divisions among workers. Understanding the roots and impacts of migration law is an essential tool in the longstanding battle against borders and the violence they inflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inventing the border<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Aliens Act 1905<\/a> was the first legislation designed specifically to restrict immigration \u2013 and to define some groups as \u2018undesirable\u2019. It was prompted by antisemitic associations of rising poverty and overcrowding in east end London with the arrival of Jews fleeing persecution in the Russian empire \u2013 termed in 1898 by the Board of Trade as \u2018immigration of the most destitute type<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Permission to land was assessed subjectively and granted verbally by the UK\u2019s first immigration officers, if a migrant could prove sufficient financial means, that they had not previously been expelled, and that they were not a \u2018lunatic\u2019 \u2018idiot\u2019, infirm, or criminal. The exception for \u2018crimes\u2019 of a religious or political nature introduced the concept of asylum to UK law<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

National insecurity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Passed on the eve of war, the Aliens Restriction Act 1914<\/a> required migrants to prove their identity and allowed internment and deportation of \u2018enemy aliens\u2019. The Aliens Act 1919<\/a> extended those laws into peacetime, mandating that all over-16s register with the police, and removed exemptions for refugees. It gave the home secretary powers to order any deportation they deemed \u2018conducive to the public good\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduced amid chronic unemployment, the act first made explicit that labour-market dynamics motivated immigration policy. It mandated<\/a> that aliens obtain permission to work, limited their employment rights and, prompted by Russian revolution anxieties, curtailed their ability to promote industrial action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selective asylum<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Thousands of refugees fleeing Nazi Germany and Franco\u2019s Spain arrived during the 1930s, as newspapers fed antisemitic campaigns<\/a> against Jewish \u00e9migr\u00e9s. In the absence of asylum law, they were granted or denied entry on the basis of general assessments including self-sufficiency and good health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

War again transformed the law. As a signatory to the United Nations\u2019 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol<\/a>, Britain committed protection first to European war refugees, later to \u2018all persons fleeing conflict and persecution\u2019. Initially administered through resettlement programmes, from the 1970s individual asylum claims became more common<\/a>. Demonisation of refugees<\/a> as \u2018queue jumping\u2019 and \u2018invading\u2019 were already commonplace, then focusing on Asians fleeing east Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subjects of empire<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Concepts of citizenship evolved radically after the second world war. The British Nationality Act 1948<\/a> granted all British subjects across the empire a right to abode in the UK and allowed English-speaking aliens \u2018of good character\u2019 to become naturalised citizens<\/a>. Part reward for wartime service, part solution to labour shortages, it heralded mass migration to Britain, characterised by the passenger ship Empire Windrush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overtly racist backlash prompted rollbacks. The Commonwealth Immigrants Acts of 1962<\/a> and 1968<\/a> introduced new migration limits, ancestry rules for citizenship and work permit requirements – prompting Labour MP Charles Royle to accuse MPs of \u2018voting for a colour bar\u2019<\/a>. The 1968 act first sanctioned deportation outside wartime<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new \u2018common wealth\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Immigration Act 1971<\/a>, introduced further immigration and employment restrictions for Commonwealth citizens, criminalised anyone breaking the new rules and shifted the onus onto individuals to prove their status \u2013 a root cause of the 2017 Windrush scandal<\/a>. It came into force on 1 January 1973 \u2013 the same day that Britain joined the European Economic Community (later absorbed into the EU<\/a>), granting reciprocal freedom of movement to worker citizens of other (predominantly white) member states. Anti-immigrant sentiment remained largely focused on non-Europeans \u2013 until Britain opened labour markets<\/a> to citizens from new central and eastern Europe EU states, in 2004.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortress Britain<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The British Nationality Act 1981<\/a> abolished \u2018citizenship of the UK and colonies\u2019 and created \u2018British citizenship\u2019, limited almost exclusively to those born in the UK<\/a> to at least one citizen or settled parent (including, for the first time, the mother<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With citizenship redefined and post-cold war dynamics opening up new travel routes and conflict zones \u2013 including sites of western military intervention \u2013 British attention turned to the rising numbers of refugees. The Asylum Acts of 1993, 1996, 1999, 2002 and 2004 installed increasingly punitive processing, adjudication and \u2018management\u2019 procedures \u2013 including retractions of welfare supports and expansion of a privately-run detention estate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From hostility to violence<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The 2010-15 coalition government\u2019s \u2018hostile environment\u2019<\/a> for illegal immigrants codified xenophobia. Immigration Acts of 2014 and 2016 mandated widespread ID checks \u2013 turning employers, landlords and healthcare providers into immigration officials. This led to unlawful deportations, including among the \u2018Windrush generation\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Brexit referendum emboldened post-2016 governments to tighten visa restrictions, curtailing legal routes for migrants. The Nationality and Borders Act 2021<\/a> and related \u2018Rwanda plan\u2019,<\/a> superseded by the Illegal Migration Act 2023<\/a>, all break international law<\/a> recognising refugees\u2019 right to choose and enter a country irregularly, and protecting against deportation to a country where they face \u2018threat to their life or freedom\u2019. Each act lays the groundwork for embedding racism even deeper into law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article first appeared in Issue #241, Autumn 2023, Pan Africanism<\/em>. Subscribe<\/a> today to get your copy hot off the press!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Siobhan McGuirk charts the development of UK borders and citizenship policies since the early 1900s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":40285,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2587,1977,1863,2538],"tags":[2567],"class_list":["post-38072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-authoritarianism-far-right","category-history","category-migration","category-policing","tag-siobhan-mcguirk"],"yoast_head":"\nEmbedding racism: a brief history of border violence - Red Pepper<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/rpdev2023.redpepper.org.uk\/society\/migration\/embedding-racism-a-brief-history-of-border-violence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Embedding racism: a brief history of border violence - 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