Limitación y posibles riesgos en el proyecto

Borders can be described as being like a filter, which distinguish between desirable and undesirable people, genuine from bogus, legitimate from illegitimate, and allow for only the ‘wanted’, those who contribute to economic growth, to enter a country (Anderson, 2013, p 2, Hampshaire, 2009, p 230). In the academic literature and descriptions of practitioners, borders can also have a wider meaning. This moves beyond a simple territorial demarcation, and also contributes to defining a political space.

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Political influence and the practice of law produce precise sorts of social, political and economic relationships that define foreign nationals (Anderson, 2013). Hampshaire (2009) suggests the term ‘differentiated borders’, which relates to the obstacles and barriers (including difficulties to obtain a British visa) in place for those from countries classified as high-risk (including asylum seekers, incidence of illegal entry, overstaying and terrorism), while at the same time the entry of other categories of travellers is facilitated.

In 2002, the Home Secretary David Blunkett presented the White Paper

‘Secure Borders, Safe Haven’, which set out the key challenges facing British nationality. It called for new immigration policy to prevent the admission of ‘bogus’ asylum seekers and those who abuse the system (The Secretary of State, 2002). The White Paper focused on asylum seekers, and every time asylum seekers were mentioned, the terms

‘abusing the system’, ‘applying new fair and effective policy’, or ‘the need for close integration’ appeared in the same line or paragraph. This gave presented a perception of all asylum seekers as abusing the system that immigration policy was not tough enough to control these abuses and that asylum seekers were not integrating into wider society.

In February 2005, a five year plan for asylum and immigration was introduced by Charles Clarke, the Secretary of State for the Home Office, titled ‘Controlling our borders: Making migration work for Britain’. The paper introduced fingerprinting for non-EU visa applicants, pre-boarding electronic checks of all persons entering and leaving the UK by air, screening of visa applicants, expansions of the network of Airline Liaison Officers (who work with carriers overseas to prevent undocumented

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foreign nationals reaching the UK), and introduced fixed penalty fines for employers for each illegal worker they employ (The Secretary of State for the Home Department, 2005).

The 2005 White Paper focused on border control, which was enhanced after the London bombings in July 2005. Since then, the issue of border control has been associated with controlling the entry of criminals from outside the UK, as a part of the wider association with the control of crimes committed by foreign nationals. Thus, foreign nationals are mostly presented in a negative way; the positive aspects of foreign nationals and their historically significant role in building the British economy are often overlooked (Hampshaire, 2009, p 232).

British borders were expanded during the last Labour term in office in two ways: externally and internally. External enlargement included agreements with some neighbouring countries, such as those made at the Seville summit in June 2002. The UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish PM Jose Marie Aznar met and proposed a campaign to harden trade policy and suspend foreign aid to developing countries that refuse to take back refugees whose applications for asylum have been rejected.

The external expansion of borders also included the requirement from the airline companies to check travel documents and visas before allowing the passengers to come to the UK. If illegitimate passengers were later identified, the airline would be responsible for flying them back to their homeland (Guiraudon, 2006).

Internal expansion occurred through a new set of policies designed to focus control interventions on the inflow of specific foreign nationals,

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something that has been termed ‘remote border control’ (Hampshaire, 2009, p 237). For example, under the pre-departure screening and carrier sanction, under Section 40 of IAA1999, the carrier (especially the owners, agents and operators of ships and aircraft) who operate international travel to the UK are liable to a charge (£2000) if they carry undocumented passengers (UK Border Agency (UKBA)). Therefore, UK authorities established the Risk and Liaison Overseas Network (previously known as Airline Liaison Officers and Risk Assessment Managers) to provide help for carriers in detecting inadequately documented passengers, thus reducing potential charges against them. The UK has a network of Immigration Liaison Managers overseas, a number of whom are in locations that have been identified as major sources or transit points for inadequately documented passengers arriving in the UK (sometimes known as IDAs) (UKBA).

The association of foreign nationals with crime was used to restrict and expand British borders. The fear of crime, particularly that based in the direct relationship between foreign nationals (Muslims in particular) and terrorism, led to swift action by the British Government, especially after 9/11 (Hampshaire, 2009, Aliverti, 2013b). In consequence, the UK border became less permeable even for legal foreign nationals, goods, and services. The policy of risk management and control in relation to potential illegal foreigners and products resulted in a slowdown in the passage of foreign passengers and trade, which eventually impacted on British economic growth (Hampshaire, 2009, p. 230). Managing foreign national offenders and tackling illegal immigrants have gone too far in British immigration policy; tackling ‘illegal immigrants’ has been applied

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as a means to scrutinise the legal. For example, if the non-EEA students do not renew their student card every month with the international office of their university, enrolment with the university will be suspended or withdrawn, the student’s visa will be cancelled and they will be required to leave the UK.

Having summarised the major developments in legislation and border control during this period, the next section will look more closely at the implications of criminalising foreign nationals by exploring how the quantity of foreign nationals has changed as a result.