The vulnerability of in-between statuses: ID and migration controls in the cases of the ‘Windrush generation’ scandal and Brexit

ABSTRACT

In this article, I argue that identity documents (ID) and migration statuses are both tools of population control and subjectivities that individuals have an interest in holding. I use documentary analyses and interviews with 31 EU27 citizens in the UK, 21 UK citizens in Belgium and the UK and with nationality bureaucracies in the two countries. States create legitimate, illegitimate and in-between statuses, and in-between statuses show how being exempt from certain ID and migration controls can create paradoxical vulnerabilities. Windrush generation migrants in the UK were exempt from migration controls but then in some cases were treated as irregular migrants because of the lack of proof of status. EU citizens were free from many migration controls, but can have difficulties in naturalization and dealing with new requirements brought about by Brexit because the procedures can require proof of rights usually produced through the migration controls they were exempt from.

KEYWORDS:

• Identity documents
• migration
• Brexit
• Windrush
• EU citizens

Acknowledgements

The data presented in the article have been collected in research projects funded by an Action de recherche concertée of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, a Newton International Fellowship of the British Academy and a postdoctoral fellowship of the F.R.S.-FNRS. Early versions of this article have been presented at the panel “The production, uses and meaning of identity documents for people on the move” of the 2019 ASA conference, University of East Anglia, Norwich, 3-6 September 2019 and at the Symposium “Citizenship, Identities and Empire – Bodies Within and Beyond Hostile Environments”, University of Warwick, 28 February 2020. I thank the participants to the two events, as well as the anonymous reviewers of Identities, for their useful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles; the British Academy under Grant NF171438; and the F.R.S-FNRS under Grant FC22951