Immigration control and the management of economic migration in the United Kingdom: organisational culture, implementation, enforcement and identity processes in public services

Abstract

In the United Kingdom, immigration control in the 1990s shifted its focus from restricted entry for immigrants from New Commonwealth countries to limiting asylum-seeking from all over the world. The rationales driving organisational change in the Home Office Immigration and Nationality Directorate were ‘good race relations’ and the New Labour government's programme for modernising the public services. However, during the period of the research, a new approach to migration management, focused on international labour flows under conditions of globalisation, increasingly influenced policy changes. This article therefore provides a study of a system in transition. We present qualitative evidence of the impact of this shift on organisational cultures, practices and identities of the staff in two different services charged with tasks of management, control and enforcement. At the cutting edge of new thinking and practice was Work Permits (UK), a small, dynamic agency that served as a model for New Labour's principles of user-friendliness, efficiency and adaptability. Significantly, its customers were businesses, not migrants. Struggling to keep up with new priorities and methods was the Home Office Immigration Service Enforcement Directorate (ISED), still trying to deal with the backlog of asylum overstayers and the aftermath of administrative chaos over computerisation.