SOLUTION OR PROBLEM: A SOCIAL WORK VIEW OF UK FORCED MIGRATION LAW AND POLICY

Abstract

The UK receives a tiny proportion of the world’s forced migrants and even in Europe is 19th out of 28 countries for numbers received. Nonetheless, immigration is used as a major political issue with public opinion weaponised to achieve the disastrous exit from the European Union. The media narrative encourages the population to believe that there is an ‘invasion’ of people making the highly dangerous journey across the English Channel in small boats and that they are not ’real’ refugees. A plethora of law and policy responses means that individuals are treated differently depending on where they came from, when and how they came. This paper will give a synopsis of the changes to law and policy that proscribe the ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’ routes to the UK for forced migrants. We will consider the outcomes of the financial investment in exclusion (border force, removal centres, planes to Rwanda, British police in France) in the context of a global economic and environmental emergency. Their intended and unintended consequences will be reviewed (destitution and homelessness, Windrush, loss of workforce, social insecurity). Drawing on the five proposals of the People’s Charter for an Eco-Social World presented to the United Nations we propose an alternative approach to migration which values the human agency and capacity of individuals. We give examples from UK and elsewhere to illustrate the success of inclusion over exclusion and offer a reflection on the ability of social work to work within and with contexts. Keywords: Forced migration, strengths approach, social work, eco-social, human rights