November 10th, 2020 3-4pm

Debating the UK Hostile Environment, how it has evolved and how to push back

Discussion moderated by Dr Teresa Piacentini

There are many aspects of UK immigration policy that can be long described as hostile. In 2012, then Home Secretary Theresa May's flagship hostile environment policy went even further than previous policies, its defining feature being the creation of a system of routine citizen-on-citizen “papers, please” immigration checks as part of everyday life in a range of settings. In recent years we have seen how this climate of hostility has become increasingly normalised in public debate and media rhetoric, and in the context of austerity, it is steadily more understood as a 'common sense' (and therefore reasonable) approach to implementing progressively inhumane and punitive border technologies, be they at sea or in the doctor's surgery. But we have also witnessed in recent years a push back through grass roots civil engagement and activism, with new forms of mobilisation and struggle emerging. In this conversation let's exchange views on how the hostile environment has evolved, where those spaces of solidarity and resistance can be found and consider, together, what can be done.

All welcome!