Routes, racism, and the hostile environment: Public and political opposition to asylum seekers arriving in the UK

This contribution examines current public and political concerns about asylum seekers arriving in the UK, which are disproportionate to their small share of overall immigration arrivals. It situates current hostility in a recent historical trajectory of deterrence politics, from the 2012 “Hostile Environment” to subsequent political slogans, i.e. “Stop the Boats”. Drawing on official statistics and opinion polls, it highlights public overestimates of asylum numbers and explores how political narratives have amplified moral panics around asylum seekers arriving in ‘small boats’. The contribution then considers the Labour Government’s continuation of deterrence policies that penalise irregular arrivals, and the comparative moral positioning of those arriving via so-called ‘safe and legal’ routes versus those arriving via the facilitation of smugglers. It argues that political narratives framing asylum seekers’ mode of entry as a marker of legitimacy or credibility reinforces racialised hierarchies of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ immigrants, and enables the entry of far-right rhetoric into mainstream politics. Arguably, such narratives undermine refugee protection and exacerbate exclusion of other racialised minorities in the UK.