Beyond the hostile environment

Article

Over the past decade, the government has rolled out a series of measures with the specific aim of creating a ‘hostile environment’ for people who are currently residing in the UK without immigration status. These measures prevent people without the correct status from accessing employment, housing, public funds, free healthcare, and financial services, and are designed to encourage them to leave the UK of their own accord.

In our interim report for this project, Access denied, we found that it had contributed to forcing individuals into destitution, fostered racism and discrimination, and was a driving factor in the emergence of the Windrush scandal. We highlighted evidence that the Home Office’s enforcement of rules on illegal working had disproportionately affected specific ethnic groups and that requirements for landlords to check the immigration status of their tenants had introduced new forms of discrimination into the private rental sector. We found little evidence to show that this approach to enforcement is encouraging individuals to voluntarily leave the UK and we reported that it had damaged the reputation of the Home Office and created policy paralysis within the department.

In this final report, we assess six different policy options for addressing the adverse impacts of the hostile environment on individuals and communities and for reforming the current system of immigration enforcement.

Related items

  1. A mother and child from behind looking out of a window

    Restoring security: Understanding the effects of removing the two-child limit across the UK

    The government’s decision to lift the two-child limit marks one of the most significant changes to the social security system in a decade.
  2. A group of healthcare professionals sitting in a staff common room in a hospital in Newcastle

    Building a healthier, wealthier Britain: Launching the IPPR Centre for Health and Prosperity

    Following the success of our Commission on Health and Prosperity, IPPR is excited to launch the Centre for Health and Prosperity.
  3. The Home Office building in London

    A ‘paradigm shift’ in asylum and immigration policy?

    In 2019, a package of asylum reforms known as the ‘paradigm shift’ was passed by a broad party consensus in the Danish parliament.