Above all, immigration is a human story, a story of the lives and personalities of individuals, families and social groups. Immigration policy in the UK is a massive area affecting many different people, groups, ethnicities and nationalities.
The United Nations has an annual International Migrants Day setting the context and history to many of these stories.
This is a brief overview only, but sources are offered for more detailed information.
Useful reading includes:
The In Limbo project blog page (In Limbo Project, 2020) has testimonies of EU27 citizens in the UK (and UK in EU27 countries) following the 2016 Brexit Referendum. There are book collections:
The Migration Museum in Lewisham provides many online education and information resources, as well as physical material (currently affected by Covid-19 crisis [October 2020]).
Our City: migrants and the making of modern Birmingham (Bloomfield, 2019) is based around a number of personal histories of people from different backgrounds who have made their home in Birmingham.
Bail for Immigration Detainees has testimonies of those held in the UK's Immigration Detention Centres (BiDS, 2020).
The National Archives blog has a case of how mixed messaging, combined with outright hostility and discrimination, can create immense difficulties and remove presumed status for individuals affected (Singh, 2022).
Other material can be found on the Diversity Resources list (Academic Skills Centre, 2020).
Research groups at the University of Birmingham:
Aston University:
HMT Empire Windrush. IWM non-commercial license (https://www.iwm.org.uk/corporate/policies/privacy-copyright/licence)
Academic Skills Centre (2020) Diversity Resources. Available at: https://rl.talis.com/3/bham/lists/2D04B7C0-3EB3-C310-9DBF-3759F30C9611.html (Accessed 24 June 2020)
Bail for Immigration Detainees (2020) Stories from detention. Available at: https://www.biduk.org/pages/12-stories-from-detention (Accessed 26 June 2020)
British Library (2020) Windrush stories: explorations of race, migration and culture. Available at: www.bl.uk/windrush (Accessed 24 June 2020)
Dorling, D. and Tomlinson, S. (2019) Rule Britannia: Brexit and the end of Empire. London: Biteback Publishing.
Gentleman, A. (2020) ''Lambs to the slaughter': 50 lives ruined by the Windrush scandal', The Guardian, 19 March. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/mar/19/lambs-to-the-slaughter-50-lives-ruined-by-the-windrush-scandal (Accessed 09 July 2020)
Institute for Research into Superdiversity, University of Birmingham (2019) Institute for Research into Superdiversity. Available at: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/superdiversity-institute/index.aspx (Accessed 12 June 2019).
Levy, A. (2004) Small Island. London: Review.
Migration Museum (2020) Heart of the Nation: migration and the making of the NHS - new digital exhibition launches. Available at: https://www.migrationmuseum.org/heart-of-the-nation-migration-and-the-making-of-the-nhs-new-digital-exhibition-launches/ (Accessed 7 October 2020)
National Archives (2022) 'The story of HMT Empire Windrush (1930–1954)', Blog. 15 December. Available at: http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/the-story-of-empire-windrush (Accessed 16 December 2022)
Olusoga, D. (2016) Black and British. London: Macmillan.
Royal Navy official photographer [Public domain] (1939-1945) HMT Empire Windrush. Available at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HMT_Empire_Windrush_FL9448.jpg (Accessed 25 June 2019)
Singh, I. (2022) 'Neither a British subject nor a British protected person', Blog. 29 November. Available at: https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/neither-a-british-subject-nor-a-british-protected-person (Accessed 16 December 2022)
Valiant Truth (2020) Windrush Betrayal - all chapters. Available at: https://youtu.be/g6ibdoj29-I (Accessed 09 July 2020)
Winder, R. (2004) Bloody foreigners. London: Little Brown.
Experiences of the UK Immigration system in the years of the Hostile Environment. Nesrine Malik (2018) has written of her own very personal story which also outlines key policies and Home Office actions and how they affected her life.
The In Limbo project website (2020) details the stories of individuals and families from EU27 countries in the UK, affected by developments and uncertainties over immigration status following the 2016 referendum in the UK. See the Brexit Impact tab in this guide for further material on this topic.
the3million campaign group has compiled a number of individual case stories relating to the UK's Hostile Environment policies (the3million, 2020).
Robert Wright has summarised some experiences and policy repercussions in the Financial Times (Wright, 2021) (institutional or personal account may be required to access article).
The UK National Archives have an online guide to assist with record searching for immigration and immigrants (National Archives, n.d.).
In Limbo (2019) New testimonies. Available at: https://www.ourbrexitblog.org/new-testimonies/ (Accessed 7 June 2019).
Malik, N. (2018) '"I felt a nausea of fury"' Guardian, 5 March. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/05/immigrant-home-office-british-citizenship-hostile-environment (Accessed 7 June 2019).
National Archives (no date) How to look for records of... Immigration and immigrants. Available at: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/immigration (Accessed 16 January 2022)
the3million (2019) The 'Hostile Environment'. Available at: https://www.the3million.org.uk/hostile-environment (Accessed 25 June 2020).
Wright, R. (2021) ''My Life's on hold': inside the UK's hostile environment for hidden migrants', The Financial Times, 20 May. Available at: https://on.ft.com/3eZOH8S (Accessed 20 May 2021). [NB: requires institutional or personal account for access]
The Windrush Scandal came fully to light in 2018 (Gentleman, 2018). Commonwealth citizens of Caribbean heritage, whose parents came in good faith to follow the call for desperately needed help in the UK following the destruction of World War II (McDowell, 2018; British Library, 2019), were found to have been denied status, work, health care, and detained and even deported to countries they barely knew at first hand. Others were denied return to the UK after family visits to the Caribbean. This was a direct result of UK legislation and its enforcement by the Home Office.
British Library (2019) Windrush stories: explorations of race, migration & culture. Available at: https://www.bl.uk/windrush (Accessed 10 June 2019)
Campbell, E. (2019) Windrush scandal: trauma continues, one year on. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-47968378/windrush-scandal-trauma-continues-one-year-on .
Gentleman, A. (2018) 'The week that took Windrush from low-profile investigation to national scandal'The Guardian, 20 April. Available at:https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/20/the-week-that-took-windrush-from-low-profile-investigation-to-national-scandal (Accessed 7 June 2019)
Gentleman, A. and Campbell, L. 'Windrush campaigner Paulette Wilson dies aged 64', The Guardian, 23 July. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jul/23/windrush-campaigner-paulette-wilson-dies-aged-64 (Accessed 24 July 2020)
McDowell, L. (2018) How Caribbean migrants helped to rebuild Britain. Available at: https://www.bl.uk/windrush/articles/how-caribbean-migrants-rebuilt-britain (Accessed 10 June 2019)
Olusoga, D. (2019) The unwanted: the secret Windrush files. BBC2 television, 24 June 2016. Available at: https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/13E1C846?bcast=129551951
(Accessed 25 June 2019) NB: requires institutional login to Box of Broadcasts.
Those in the categories of seeking asylum, and those granted refugee status, have increasingly been drawn into the general immigration system. They may be subject to immigration detention (effectively imprisonment) in the only European country to have no time-limit on detention (Liberty, 2019).
Bail for Immigration Detainees (2019) has compiled accounts by individuals caught up in this cruel system.
The Refugee Council has drawn together the personal testimonies of a number of refugees and of volunteers and organisations (Refugee Council, 2019).
In terms of statistics, the UK House of Commons publishes briefings such as Asylum Statistics for March 2022.
An asylum seeker is someone who is seeking international protection. In countries with individualized procedures, an asylum-seeker is someone whose claim has not yet been finally decided on by the country in which he or she has submitted it. Not every asylum-seeker will ultimately be recognized as a refugee, but every refugee is initially an asylum-seeker. (UNHCR, 2006, p. 4)
"A refugee is a person, who, 'owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.'" Article 1, 1951, Convention relating to the Status of refugees. (UNHCR, 1951, cited in UNHCR UK, 2019)
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) (2006) UNHCR master glossary of terms, June 2006, Rev 1. Available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/42ce7d444.html (Accessed 28 June 2019)
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) UK (2019) Asylum in the UK. Available at: https://www.unhcr.org/uk/asylum-in-the-uk.html (Accessed 28 June 2019)
Bail for Immigration Detainees (2019) Detainees stories - voices from detention.
Available at: https://www.biduk.org/pages/12-detainee-stories (Accessed 12 June 2019)
Liberty (2019) Oppose indefinite detention. Available at:
https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/campaigning/oppose-indefinite-detention (Accessed 12 June 2019)
Parliament. House of Commons Library (2022) Research briefings: asylums statistics. Published Wednesday, 02 March, 2022. Available at: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn01403/ (Accessed 11 March 2022)
Refugee Council (2019) Case studies: Linh's story.
Available at https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/latest/case-studies/ (Accessed 10 June 2019)