Immigration Under New Labour: Policy and Effects

The Labour government's time in office between 1997 and 2010 was characterised by legislative activism in immigration matters. This article contextualises and tracks the main continuities in the government's policy-making during this period. Key to this process was the attempt to create different conceptions of migrants according to 'type'. Thus a dual approach was taken, one that characterised asylum-seekers and refugees as unwanted, and labour migrants as wanted. However, policy and discourse regarding the unwanted migrants were to have consequences, one of which was the creation of the notion that immigration was in crisis. This impacted on public perceptions and led to further policy-making that was reactive to the crisis the initial policy had created.