Catherine Hall on the history of the 'hostile environment'

In an article in the London Review of Books (23 January 2020), Catherine Hall explores the notion and practice of a ‘hostile environment’ for immigrants to Britain, tracing its formation from the Somerset case of 1772 and the writings of Edward Long through Emancipation to the 1948 Nationality Act and the British Home Office’s targeting of legally resident black Britons for deportation in the 2010s. Far from being a novel doctrine of recent years, hostility to immigrants and to people of colour has long been embedded in British society and politics.

You can read the article here: London Review of Books.