Making of Refugee Policy in UK in the early 2000’s

Abstract

This article provides a comprehensive overview of Britain’s immigration policy early 2000’s. Britain was once known as a country of ‘zero immigration’ and given that the majority of Britain’s post-war restrictive measures were targeted at non-white immigrants, many scholars contend that Britain’s immigration regime was underpinned by a racialized discourse. In stark contrast to Britain’s past record, the Labour governments of 1997 to 2010 pursued an expansionary economic immigration policy. The chapter builds a narrative of British immigration policy until 2010 and serves to demonstrate the unprecedented shift under the Labour governments in comparison to Britain’s post-war restrictive framing.