Immigration Under New Labour: Policy and Effects

Abstract

The Labour government's time in office between 1997 and 2010 was characterised by legislative activism in immigration matters. This article contextualises and tracks the main continuities in the government's policy-making during this period. Key to this process was the attempt to create different conceptions of migrants according to ‘type’. Thus a dual approach was taken, one that characterised asylum-seekers and refugees as unwanted, and labour migrants as wanted. However, policy and discourse regarding the unwanted migrants were to have consequences, one of which was the creation of the notion that immigration was in crisis. This impacted on public perceptions and led to further policy-making that was reactive to the crisis the initial policy had created.

Keywords:

• Migration
• Policy
• Crisis
• New Labour
• UK

Notes

1. The Dublin Regulation was an updated version of the Dublin Convention. The aim was to ensure that asylum-seekers applied for asylum in the first EU member-state in which they arrived.

2. The acquis was the consolidated legislation required of prospective member-states prior to their full membership and included elements that not all existing member-states had implemented.

3. The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) was developed in 2004 with the objective of creating clearer links between the EU and its neighbours. This extended to deals on economic access and integration.

4. Transit processing centres were refugee determination centres outside the region in which people were seeking asylum.

5. Refugee protection areas were to be designated safe havens within their regions of origin.

6. A8 is the term commonly used for the 2004 European enlargement which led to the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia joining the EU, followed by Cyprus and Malta.