Briefing paper No 11 THE EMBEDDING OF STATE HOSTILITY A background paper on the Windrush Scandal FRANCES WEBBER Additional research by Anya Edmond-Pettitt The embedding of state hostility: A background paper on the Windrush Scandal The embedding of state hostility ‘The UK Home Office hostile environ- are some of the questions thrown up by the ment policy is a set of administrative and Windrush scandal. legislative measures designed to make staying in the United Kingdom as difficult On 17 April 2018, prime minister Theresa May as possible for people without leave to stood up in parliament and apologised for the remain, in the hope that they may “volun- treatment of Caribbean pensioners who had tarily leave”.’ Wikipedia been rendered jobless, homeless, destitute and unable to access hospital treatment for cancer ‘It is wilfully misleading to conflate the after a lifetime living, working and paying situation experienced by people from taxes in Britain. Some had been detained, some the Windrush generation with measures deported. Some had died without hearing her in force to tackle illegal immigration and apology. protect the UK taxpayer’. Home Office, June 2018 But there has been no apology for the policies which were directly responsible for their treat- ‘This is not a glitch in the system; it is the ment; quite the reverse. What had happened system. [They have] violated no law. It to this group, the ‘Windrush generation’, was is the law that is violating [them].’ Gary presented as a series of unfortunate mistakes Younge, April 2018 in the application of legitimate and neces- sary measures for the protection of the British What exactly is the hostile environment? How public from illegal immigration. did it happen that people who thought they were British were told they were illegal immi- Finally, though, the voices of those whose grants? Who are the illegal immigrants that the lives have been blighted by ‘hostile environ- hostile environment was designed to catch? ment’ policies are being heard – not only those How did a person’s immigration status become of the Windrush generation, but others who such a life-defining issue, and the term ‘illegal have been unheard until now: children born immigrant’ change from a regulatory issue into in the UK, entitled to citizenship but unable a badge of criminality? Who decides who is a to afford the fee to register; women married ‘good’ immigrant and who a ‘bad’ one – and to British men who have left after domestic are we, if we accept these distinctions, helping violence; people who have overstayed visas to to perpetuate the hostile environment? These care for sick relatives, or through inability to CONTENTS 1. The hostile environment 4 7. Who are the ‘illegals’? Slipping into 21 2. The Windrush scandal 6 illegality 3. The roots of the hostile environment 9 8. The new numbers game 25 5. The ‘bad immigrant’: race, class and 15 9. The retreat from universal human 26 immigration rights 6. The role of the media 19 10. Resistance 28 Institute of Race Relations | Briefing Paper No. 11 2 The embedding of state hostility: A background paper on the Windrush Scandal afford rocketing visa fees, or through sheer exclusion, surveillance and enforcement, have inadvertence – all these and others who turned all foreigners into a suspect population have found themselves denied and excluded, and our society into a nation of border guards, perhaps detained and deported as ‘bad immi- establishing state xeno-racism and nativism as grants’, ‘illegal immigrants’. central to government policy. This background paper takes a historical While the change of name, from ‘hostile’ to perspective, demonstrating how the good ‘compliant’, is a tacit acknowledgement of immigrant/ bad immigrant dichotomy, and the the state racism informing the policies, much term ‘illegal immigrant’, have been deployed more is needed to dismantle the edifice – but and weaponised by politicians at different a start has been made, as some of those tasked times. We show how the roots of some hostile with implementing the policies – doctors and environment policies can be traced back social workers, landlords, teachers and even several decades – but it is the Cameron and some Border Force officials – come forward to May governments which, by building up a denounce them. complete set of interlocking policies of denial, Global Justice Now Institute of Race Relations | Briefing Paper No. 11 3 The embedding of state hostility: A background paper on the Windrush Scandal 1. The hostile environment A number of policies came together to create produce evidence of their entitlement to be in the ‘hostile environment’: the UK, to work, etc.1 » making access to most of the necessities of life dependent on immigration status, and shifting the burden of proof to those Conscripted into immigration seeking jobs, benefits, housing and other enforcement services, who must prove entitlement, rather than requiring the Home Office to The following people must check (and in some disprove it; cases record) the immigration status of those » requiring providers of jobs, benefits, to whom they provide benefits or services: housing and other services to check immi- » employers, who can be fined £20,000 per gration status of all applicants, and data unauthorised worker, or imprisoned for up sharing between the Home Office and many to five years for employing such a worker other agencies; knowing or reasonably believing them to » aggressive immigration policing. be unauthorised; » civil servants dealing with benefits; » local authority housing and benefits Necessities of life officers and social workers, who have a duty to notify the Home Office of unau- Those without permission to be in the UK thorised applicants; cannot: » private landlords, who can be fined or » Work legally: they can be arrested, charged imprisoned for up to five years for accom- with illegal working and have their wages modating someone without permission to confiscated be in the UK; » access means-tested benefits » colleges and universities with interna- » access social housing or homeless tional staff or students, who can be fined persons housing etc as employers and have their sponsor- » legally rent private rented housing ship licence withdrawn for lax controls on » embark on further or higher education international students; » access non-emergency hospital treat- » NHS hospital staff; ment if they cannot pay the full fees (150 » Bank and building society managers percent of cost) » The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency » have a bank account, making renting (DVLA) property impossible » Marriage registrars, who have a duty to » legally drive: they can be arrested for notify the Home Office of ‘suspicious driving whilst unlawfully in the UK marriages’. » marry: marriage may be investigated, postponed or stopped on suspicion that it Additionally, the Home Office is entitled to is an ‘immigration marriage’ demand, and routinely receives, information It is for the person seeking employment, 1 Other groups apart from undocumented migrants welfare benefits, housing (social or private), are not entitled to work, eg, visitors, most asylum hospital treatment, enrolment on a course, a seekers, college students. University students may driving licence, marriage, a bank account – to work only ten hours per week in termtime. Institute of Race Relations | Briefing Paper No. 11 4 The embedding of state hostility: A background paper on the Windrush Scandal on suspected ‘immigration offenders’ from » Immigration officers have conducted con- other government agencies including the troversial immigration status checks at police, Department for Work and Pensions London tube stations; (DWP), Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), NHS Digital and the Department for » Immigration officers have all thepowers Education. of arrest, search of persons, use of force, search of premises, seizure of potential Immigration officials are ‘embedded’ in the evidence, of vehicles and documents that DVLA, in a number of police custody suites and police have, without most of the safe- in some local authority housing and children’s guards against abuse. departments. » Although detention is ‘a last resort’ accord- ing to Home Office policy, around 27,000 Aggressive policing people, including thousands of survivors of torture or trafficking, vulnerable and The abject failure of Operation Vaken, the bill- mentally ill people, are detained annually board van hired by the Home Office in 2013 for immigration enforcement, most for to broadcast the message ‘Go Home! Or face days or weeks but some for months or arrest!’ to irregular migrants, has obscured years. At least half are released, lending the thousands of immigration raids routinely weight to the belief that detention is taking place all over the country: unnecessary, arbitrary and responds to Home Office targets rather than a real need From 1993 to 2009 the number of immigra- to detain. Despite strong campaigning and tion enforcement officers in the country parliamentary pressure, governments have grew from 120 to 7,500; consistently refused to introduce a time » Many thousands of enforcement visits limit for detention, opting out of the EU or raids, involving several officials, take maximum of 18 months. place annually; Institute of Race Relations | Briefing Paper No. 11 5 The embedding of state hostility: A background paper on the Windrush Scandal 2. The Windrush scandal Awareness of the ‘Hostile Environment’ only records – although shipping companies’ ledgers, became widespread when it was revealed, in recently found stored at the National Archive, April 2018, that over the past few years, thou- will help many prove their arrival date. sands of elderly British or ‘virtual British’ residents, mainly from the Caribbean, who Why did the Home Office reject the evidence they came to the UK as children before 1973 with presented? Officials demanded four pieces of or to join parents, were finding themselves documentary evidence for each year of claimed treated as ‘illegal immigrants’ and fired from residence. Some later claimed they were not jobs, denied welfare benefits, housing and allowed to accept other forms of evidence.