Policing Migration: A Framework for Investigating the Regulation of Global Mobility

Abstract

Criminologists are increasingly pointing to new forms of control that are associated with the regulatory‐yet‐punitive states of late modernity. This article starts from the premise that the policing of global population movements is an example of an emerging punitive regulatory system that demands urgent attention by criminologists. It articulates an agenda for the critical examination of “migration policing” in Britain set against the backdrop of the historical inclusion and exclusion of immigrant groups, and proposes a “sites of enforcement” framework that is intended to guide further empirical investigations into the operation of immigration control networks.

Keywords:

• Policing
• Immigration
• Law Enforcement
• Border Checks
• Internal Controls
• Asylum Seekers

Notes

Leanne Weber is a Lecturer in Policing at the University of Western Sydney. Benjamin Bowling is Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at King's College London. Correspondence to: Leanne Weber, Lecturer in Policing, School of Applied Social and Human Sciences, University of Western Sydney, Bankstown Campus, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, NSW 1797, Australia.

Thanks to Phil Scraton for permission to reproduce passages published in his edited collection Beyond September 11^th: An Anthology of Dissent (Scraton, 2002).

The authors would like to thank Jasmine Chadha for providing valuable assistance with the research and editing of this article.

See Panayi (1996) for various historical examples of British reactions to minority communities; Mayall (1995) for an historical analysis of the state response to English Gypsies; and Goldhagen (1996) on the intensification of anti‐Jewish sentiment in Germany prior to the Holocaust.

Report of the Royal Commission on Alien Immigration (Cmnd 1741, 1903, Vols I–IV).

At the end of 2001, Asia hosted the largest refugee population (48.3%), followed by Africa (27.5%), Europe (18.3%), North America (5%), Oceania (0.6%) and Latin America and the Caribbean (0.3%) (source: UNHCR Population Statistics (Provisional), 7 June 2002. Available online at: www.unhcr.org)

See almost any contribution to the Special Edition of the British Journal of Criminology (Vol. 40, no. 2, Spring 2000) for a development of these themes.

The source for these estimates is statistics on arrivals at UK ports from 1998 to 2001 from Tables 1.1 and 2.1 of Home Office Statistical Bulletin 11/02, Control of Immigration: Statistics United Kingdom, 2001.

See Part 4 of the 2001 Anti‐terrorism Crime and Security Act.

Amnesty International news release “United Kingdom: Concern over anti‐terrorist arrests”, 19 December 2001 (AI Index: EUR 45/028/2001). Available online at: www.amnesty.org.

The page number cited is the page within the printed format of this article, as accessed from the electronic version of the journal.

Although they were formally interviewed by immigration officers, the grant of asylum was virtually a formality and was not characterised by the “culture of disbelief” that prevails today.

Between 1992 and 2001, the proportion of asylum applications in Britain that were lodged on arrival fluctuated between one‐half and one‐third (source: www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds)

E.g., Part VII, ss.128‐146 of the 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act creates powers for immigration officers to arrest and search certain persons; and Part VII, ss.152‐156 of the 2002 Nationality and Immigration Act strengthens immigration officers' powers to enter business premises to search for and arrest “immigration offenders”.

We acknowledge that the role of customs officers in migration policing has not been given adequate consideration here and requires further research.

Most refugees will not be in a position to seek pre‐entry clearance into Britain before their departure (and may not even know their final destination) and are not likely to be granted a visa even if they are able to apply.

Source: “Refugee Council's response to Home Office Consultation on Juxtaposed Controls Implementation, Dover‐Calais, November 2002” Available online at: www.refugeecouncil.org.uk.

Reported in Siti Altaf Deviyati, “Denial of visitor visas for families”, 18 June 2003—a news item available online at: www.irr.org.uk.

Source: Home Office press release 196/2003 8 July 2003. Available online at: www.homeoffice. gov.uk/pressreleases.asp.

Loader (2002, citing Johnston) has pointed to the growing involvement of commercial security concerns at a global level in the detection of illegal migrants. The supra‐national aspect of their activities is not adequately represented in the “sites of enforcement” model as it stands at present.

S. 8 of the 1996 Asylum and Immigration Act and Part 7, s. 147 of the 2002 Nationality and Immigration Act.

E.g., the Home Office has issued press releases calling on British residents living in coastal areas to be alert for unauthorised boat arrivals, and a telephone hotline to enable members of the public to report suspected “immigration offenders” was proposed in the 2002 White Paper (Home Office, 2002). On 24 March 2003, the Institute of Race Relations electronic news service reported that library staff in Plymouth had refused a police request to log Internet activities by asylum seekers living in the town, which was reportedly prompted by a public complaint about use of the library Internet facilities by a “foreign student” which had proven to be unfounded (Arun Kundnani ‘Libraries rebuff police surveillance of asylum seekers’. Available online at: www.irr.org.uk)

The status of this particular proposal is not known, but the Refugee Council document on Juxtaposed Controls, referred to in Note 16 above does not refer to the existence of such a force in its list of measures aimed at preventing the arrival of “illegal immigrants” in Britain.

See the report of the Glidewell Panel (1996), which documents a range of concerns surrounding the 1996 legislation.

The most notorious case is that of Joy Gardener, a woman of Jamaican origin, who died in 1993 as a result of police restraint. She was visited by the (now disbanded) Metropolitan Police Alien Deportation Group, had her wrists handcuffed to a leather strap around her waist, was bound by a second belt across her thighs and a third one around her ankles. As she lay on the floor, 13 feet of adhesive tape were wound around her head and face. Mrs Gardner collapsed and died in hospital a few hours later.

‘Met frets over drive against migrants’, Guardian, 19 October 2001; ‘Met warns Blunkett of deportation risks’, Guardian, 30 August 2001.

Under this legislation, the police can be held liable for damages caused during civil disturbances. According to press reports at the time, fire crews claimed, in fact, that detention centre staff prevented them from accessing the building for fear of allowing detainees to escape.

From www.ncis.gov.uk.

This term includes those who have entered illegally or breached the terms of their entry by working or overstaying, and should not include “failed” asylum seekers who have been granted temporary admission while their claims are considered.

The subsequent failure to meet the 2002 removal targets was blamed in part on the destruction of the Yarl's Wood facility.

Part 2, s. 16 of the 2002 Nationality and Immigration Act outlines the setting up of accommodation centres, but does not provide a limit on the number of centres or number of places.

Immigration Service/Association of Chief Police Officers (2001), Joint Protocol between the Immigration Service and the Police Service for the Removal of Immigration Offenders.

On 27 April 1994, Kwanele Eldah Siziba fell 150 feet to her death as she attempted to flee from what she believed to be immigration officials coming to deport her. On 23 October 1994, Joseph Nnalue died after falling from his second floor flat in Stockwell, South London, when police and immigration officials called to question him regarding his immigration status. On 15 March 1996, Noorjahan Begum died after falling 30 feet from the balcony of a flat in Stepney, east London. Two immigration officers called at the flat early on the morning of her death. On Sunday, 25 November 2001, two police officers and two immigration officials raided a third floor flat in Streatham, southwest London. One person fell to his death from the balcony trying to escape.

See the item entitled “The Czech and British Governments” in the round‐up section of the August 2001 edition of iNexile, the newsletter of the British Refugee Council.

Established findings from police research include the legal and organisational framework (Dixon, 1997); the occupational culture and its norms, values and recipes for action (Holdaway, 1983; Chan, 1997); the influence of politicians and other interest groups (Grimshaw & Jefferson, 1987); wider societal values and expectations of police (Chan, 1997); and structural factors such as the social divisions of age, gender, class and ethnicity (Scraton, 1987).