Examining Political Parties’ Record on Refugees and Asylum Seekers in UK Party Manifestos 1964–2019: The Rise of Territorial Approaches to Welfare?

Abstract

This study addresses a key lacuna by analyzing political parties’ formative policy record on refugees’ and asylum seekers’ welfare in party manifestos for state-wide and meso-elections in the UK, 1964–2019. The findings confirm relational contrasts in issue-prioritization and the framing of pledges – between parties and across polities. The wider significance of this lies in underlining the need to examine the formative, electoral phase of refugee and asylum-seeker policy-making; and showing how the move to a multi-level electoral system combines with regional party politics to drive the territorialization of RAS welfare in federal and union states.

Keywords:

• Refugees and asylum seekers’ policy
• elections
• manifestos
• welfare
• party politicization
• territorialization

Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges the helpful and constructive comments of the editor and three anonymous reviewers on an earlier draft of this paper – as well as the support of the Economic and Social Research Council under Award No. ES/S012435/1.

Notes

1 https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/key-issues-mps-will-be-focussed-during-election-and-new-parliament [Last accessed 9 September 2020]

2 https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/conservatives-hold-12-point-lead-over-labour-heading-final-week-election-campaign [Last accessed 9 June 2020]

3 https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/4-ways-anti-immigration-vote-won-referendum-brexit [Last accessed 09 September 2020]

4 https://www.unhcr.org/4ca34be29.pdf [last accessed 8 May 2020]

5 https://www.unhcr.org/uk/asylum-seekers.html [last accessed 9 May 2020]

6 https://www.unhcr.org/uk/asylum-seekers.html [last accessed 9 May 2020]

7 https://www.unhcr.org/uk/asylum-in-the-uk.html [last accessed 9 May 2020]

8 UNHCR ‘UNHCR’s priorities for the UK Government’ 4 May 2017 https://www.unhcr.org/uk/protection/basic/590b09ca4/unhcrs-priorities-for-the-uk-government.html [last accessed 9 May 2020]

9 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-year-ending-march-2020/summary-of-latest-statistics [last accessed 8 May 2020]

10 UN General Assembly, Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 28 July 1951, United Nations, Treaty Series, Vol 189, 137.

11 Council of Europe, European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as amended by Protocols Nos 11 and 14, 4 November 1950.

12 This stated that: (1) The Union shall constitute an area of freedom, security and justice with respect for fundamental rights and the different legal systems and traditions of the Member States. (2) It shall ensure the absence of internal border controls for persons and shall frame a common policy on asylum, immigration and external border control, based on solidarity between Member States, which is fair towards third-country nationals. For the purpose of this Title, stateless persons shall be treated as third-country nationals …

13 https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/networks/european_migration_network/glossary_search/dublin-convention_en [last accessed 8 May 2020]

14 For example, Regulation (EU) No 604/2013 ([2013] OJ L/180/31) (“Dublin 3”) establishes the criteria and

means for determining the Member State responsible for examining an application for international protection lodged in the EU

15 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1999/33/contents [last accessed 9 May 2020]

16 https://www.gov.uk/claim-asylum/eligibility [last accessed 8 May 2020]

17 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/513585/Point_of_Claim_English_20160401.pdf [last accessed 8 May 2020]

18 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#local-authority-data [last accessed 8 May 2020]

19 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-47597458 [last accessed 8 May 2020]

20 Defined in terms of share of the popular vote.

21 Where necessary, hardcopy only versions of early manifestos were transcribed. The software used was Nvivo ⁹.

22 For example, in the present study, the word-length of Sinn Féin’s manifestos over successive cycles is: 4,234 (1998), 23,152 (2003), 19,097 (2007), 5,601 (2011), 6,896 (2016), and 5,437 (2017).

23 As opposed to ratio measures of the number of pledges in relation to manifesto word length.

24 Values calculated according to the formula: $Correl(X,Y)=\frac{{\displaystyle \sum (x-\overline{x})}(y-\overline{y})}{\sqrt{{\displaystyle \sum {(x-\overline{x})}^2{\displaystyle \sum {(y-\overline{y})}^2}}}}.$ The Sigma symbol indicates summation and x and y stand for the two data ranges (based on the issue-salience of RAS policy in each election 1997–2019). The correlation coefficient measures how strong a linear relationship exists between variables x and y. It is always a number between −1.0 and +1.0. If the correlation coefficient is close to +1.0, there is a strong positive linear relationship between x and y.

25 78 pledges compared to 58 (Con), 51(Lab) and 58 (Lib).

26 See https://www.legislation.gov.uk/mwa/2011/2/contents and https://gov.wales/childrens-rights-in-wales [Last accessed 28 September 2020]

27 UKIP’s manifestos for the Welsh Parliament are unlike those for Scotland and Northern Ireland. They do not refer to RAS, immigration or border controls. Rather they mainly concentrate on reforming the model of Welsh devolution.

28 ‘This Action Plan is for England. As the Green Paper set out, the majority of the policy proposals are in areas where responsibility is devolved to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. There are some actions which relate to the immigration system, which are reserved matters, and the UK government will engage the devolved administrations as policies develop’, p.5.

29 https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/information/resources/refugees-welcome-the-experience-of-new-refugees-in-the-uk/ [Last accessed 27 June 2020]

30 https://ec.europa.eu/migrant-integration/librarydoc/integrated-communities-action-plan-mhclg [Last accessed 27 June 2020]

31 https://gov.wales/discretionary-assistance-fund-daf/how-apply [Last accessed 27 June 2020]

32 For Sinn Fein and the SDLP, this is the precursor to Irish reunification. For the SNP and Plaid Cymru, it is the precursor to independence.