Governing Through Migration Control: Security and Citizenship in Britain

35 Pages Posted: 27 Oct 2008 Last revised: 17 Jun 2014

See all articles by Mary Bosworth

Mary Bosworth

University of Oxford - Faculty of Law; University of Oxford - Border Criminologies

Mhairi Guild

University of Oxford - Saint Antony’s College

Date Written: 2008

Abstract

Expanding mechanisms of border control increasingly depend on the criminalisation of non-citizens. While some criminology scholarship might suggest such measures announce an increasing governance of migration 'through crime', we argue that it is not simply a case of punitive crime control strategies leaching into migration policies. Not only are foreigners in a far more vulnerable position to the British citizen, but the restrictions they face play important constitutive roles in newly invigorated discourses of citizenship and nationalism. In this article we suggest that criminologists must move on from studies that emphasise control and criminalisation to consider more broadly the implications of basing a politics of national identity that aspires to 'solidarity' and shared values on the forcible exclusion of growing numbers of people.

Keywords: immigration, asylum, citizenship, security, governing through crime

Suggested Citation

Bosworth, Mary and Guild, Mhairi, Governing Through Migration Control: Security and Citizenship in Britain (2008). The British Journal of Criminology, Vol. 48, No. 6, pp. 703-719, 2008, Oxford Legal Studies Research Paper No. 35/2011, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1289105 or http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azn059

Mary Bosworth (Contact Author)

University of Oxford - Faculty of Law ( email )

University of Oxford - Border Criminologies ( email )

Manor Road Building
Manor Rd
Oxford, OX1 3UQ
United Kingdom

Mhairi Guild

University of Oxford - Saint Antony’s College ( email )

Oxford
United Kingdom

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