When Policy Creates Politics: the Problematizing of Immigration and the Consequences for Refugee Integration in the UK

Abstract

This article starts from the premise that the way that policy is made plays an important role in how it is subsequently received. It is argued here that New Labour asylum policy and the symbols and rhetoric that accompanied policy-making, constructed asylum seekers as a threat. This construction problematized immigration generally and created a sense of crisis within the policy field. This assumed crisis then acted to encourage hostility within the general population. The hostile political environment then raises significant problems in terms of integration for all migrant groups, but particularly for asylum seekers and refugees. The article contextualizes these developments and locates cohesion and integration ‘problems’ within the policy-making processes of the Government.