Discourses
of immigration and citizenship: from Windrush to Brexit
Thursday
27th June 2019
De Montfort University, Leicester
The media
coverage of the Brexit Referendum in 2016 focused disproportionately upon the
notion that Britain close its borders and reduce immigration if the country
left European Union. Media discourse on
the issues of immigration, race and ethnicity are best described as negative,
whilst Government policies on immigration, appear to promote a hostile
environment in order to deter potential immigrants. This discourse is not new,
sixty years ago when the Windrush generation arrived in Britain they faced
discrimination, prejudice and last year, a number of them who had arrived legally,
most likely as children, were been
removed from the UK because they were unable to prove they had a right to
remain.
So what if
anything has changed in the intervening years since Empire Windrush docked in
1948 bringing to the UK hundreds of Caribbean migrants? What parallels are
there between the media discourse of Windrush and newer migrants from Eastern
Europe or further afield? Does
post-Brexit Britain mean incidents like Windrush will be legitimised as the UK
takes control of who is welcome in the country?
