Hostile Environment

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Maya Goodfellow. Hostile Environment

Hostile Environment. How Immigrants Became. Scapegoats. Maya Goodfellow

Contents

Introduction. An Honest Conversation

1. The Cost of It All

2 ‘Keeping’ the Country White

3. New Labour: Things Can Only Get Better?

4. Legitimate Concerns

5 ‘It’s Not Racist. It’s Common Sense’

Conclusion

Acknowledgements

Notes

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Praise for Hostile Environment

‘Maya Goodfellow’s book could not be more timely. While politicians and pundits continue to peddle toxic myths about migration, Goodfellow dives into the details of the issue and exposes the way in which migrants have been vilified and mistreated in this country. The book is a brilliant exposé of the struggles faced by migrants and a rallying cry for the pro-migrant movement we desperately need’

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The attention Alan Kurdi’s picture received sparked action in some countries, including the UK, Germany and Canada, who agreed to admit more refugees. But after momentarily softening their stance toward refugees, EU politicians competing with the far right wanted to show they retained a tough stance on refugees. Domestically and at the frontiers of fortress Europe they continued to reinforce and make sharper the many methods used to keep people out. Within months, if not weeks, tabloid newspapers that were outraged by Kurdi’s death resumed normal service, running an endless stream of anti-refugee scare stories. Hostile coverage punctuated by compassion, positivity, pity or outrage – whether about detention or deaths – isn’t going to fundamentally change policy or the myriad of negative ways immigration and asylum are represented, even if there is a shift in public opinion. A year after his son’s picture became world news, Alan Kurdi’s father, Abdullah, said, ‘Everybody claimed they wanted to do something because of the photo that touched them so much. But what is happening now? People are still dying and nobody is doing anything about it.’30

Nora knows better than most about the brutality of the UK’s immigration regime. Arriving in the UK at the age of just seventeen with her younger cousin, thanks to tickets their families bought by selling off their valuables, the two were helped out of a country in north-east Africa in 2001, escaping violence in the region with the aim of securing an education and with it a better life.

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