Hostile Environment | Maya Goodfellow
In these videos Maya Goodfellow explores Britain's long history of anti-immigration politics, and the reality of climate breakdown on migration. SheĀ is the author of Hostile Environment: How Immigrants Became Scapegoats.
Britain's hostile environment
Whilst we need to recognise the specificity of the current moment, we can't ignore Britain's exclusionary and hostile past, especially with regards to policy and rhetoric. It isn't immigration that it the issue, but anti-immigration politics.
Climate migration
Climate breakdown is going to require a change to immigration policy. With existing refugee conventions not covering those displaced from their homes because of climate change, howĀ can we make sure that people are protected?
Ā
The UK government proudly calls the aim of its immigration policy to be the creation of a āhostile environment,ā while refugees drown in the Mediterranean and Britain votes to leave the EU against claims that āswarmsāof migrants are entering Britain. Meanwhile, study after study confirms that immigration is not damaging the UKās economy, nor putting a strain on public services, but immigration is blamed for all of Britainās ills. Yet concerns about immigration are deemed ālegitimateā across the political spectrum, with few exceptions. How did we get here?
Maya Goodfellow offers a compelling answer. Through interviews with leading policy-makers, asylum seekers, and immigration lawyers, Goodfellow illuminates the dark underbelly of contemporary immigration policies. A nuanced analysis of the UKās immigration policy from the 1960s onwards,Ā Hostile EnvironmentĀ links immigration policy and the rhetoric of both Labour and Tory governments to the UKās colonial past and its imperialist present. Goodfellow shows that distinct forms of racism and dehumanisation directly resulted from immigration policy, and reminds us of the human cost of concessions to anti-immigration politics.
