Understanding immigration and refugee policy : : Contradictions and continuities / / Rosemary Sales.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Bristol University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2013-1995
• VerfasserIn: Sales, Rosemary,
• Place / Publishing House: Bristol : : Policy Press, , [2007]; ©2007
• Year of Publication: 2007
• Language: English
• Series: Understanding Welfare: Social Issues, Policy and Practice
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (296 p.)

Immigration, particularly asylum, has become a major political issue in Britain and Europe and its impact on welfare, employment and 'social cohesion' highly contested. While asylum policy has become more punitive, dependence on immigrant labour has been increasingly acknowledged by governments which attempt to 'manage' migration to secure the benefits without the presumed costs. The book provides an essential background to understanding these debates. Based on documentary sources and primary research, it focuses mainly on Britain within an international and European context. The first part examines different theoretical approaches to understanding migratory flows and strategies. It explores forced and voluntary migration, the gender dimension in migration decisions and transnational links maintained by migrants. Part two focuses on continuities and change in migration policy and how boundaries have shifted to exclude and include different groups. It explores links between immigration policy, welfare and social exclusion, and migrants' experiences in negotiating and challenging these policies. The book concludes by questioning whether immigration controls can be justified on either ethical or practical grounds. The book will be a key text for students and researchers of migration and ethnicity, and of social policy and welfare. It will be of interest to professionals working with migrants and refugees and to all those concerned with migrant rights.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Contents -- Detailed contents -- List of tables and boxes -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction: immigration policy in the twenty-first century -- Understanding migration -- Contemporary migration flows: continuities and new directions -- Explaining migration -- Forced migration -- Understanding migration and refugee policy -- Contemporary immigration policy making -- The development of British immigration policy -- Britain’s managed migration policy -- Living with immigration policy -- The future of immigration policy: immigration controls, immigration and citizenship -- Further information for researching migration policy -- References -- Index