2. Conference presentations
1.2.3 The implication of adapting different definitions and the subject of this study study
Looking at different definitions of immigrants and the subsequent methods of collecting immigration data brings many advantages, such as giving a clear idea about what sort of immigrant the research is focused on, as well as also displaying the vague meaning of most political and media debates evaluating the impact of immigrants in the UK.
There are two implications on adopting different definitions in different immigration policies. Firstly, immigration policy plays a significant role not only in determining the meaning of immigrant, but also in influencing studies focused on the impact of immigrants, and their relationship with different economic, social, and legal issues in their host countries. Secondly, comparative studies concerning immigration should acknowledge the differences in applied immigration policies. The outcomes of different empirical studies in different countries will be influenced by the difference in immigration policy therein, and this should be kept in mind when considering their findings.
In addition, the nature of the relationship between foreign nationals and the CJS will therefore be affected, due to the differential foreign national populations depending on the different methods and categories that national surveys have used. Table 1.1 (in Appendix 2) illustrates the practical difference between the population of foreign-born and foreign nationals, the considerable differences in the population between the two categories is resulted an exaggeration in the impact of immigrants (foreign nationals) have on British society and elevate negative public sentiments.
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The issue is further confused by debates in immigration policy in relation to EU and non-EU citizens, despite neither of these being British. The concept of ‘foreignness’ in relation to these two groups is quite different, and EU citizens are afforded more freedom to enter, live and work in the UK, whereas non-EU citizens face significant social and economic barriers. Thus, it is important to recognise that ‘non-British’ is not a single group, but one that can be differentiated at a range of levels.
Motivations for this study
The relationship between immigration and crime is a controversial topic, especially with the lack of data in research (Bhui, 2009a). There is a Western concern in regard to the level of criminality that foreign nationals demonstrate in Western countries, and the different types of illegal activities that foreigners are more likely to get prison sentences. Despite the wealth of research and the various theories that have been applied to explain the overrepresentation of foreign nationals in crimes, which have focused on structural and cultural factors, as well as discrimination against foreign nationals in different stages of the legal process. However, the fluctuation and change in the prison population still needs more explanation. The main motivation for this research comes from a desire to examine important factors that have a significant impact on the overrepresentation of foreigners in statistical data on offending, and to interrogate the oft-repeated political discourses that focus on ‘foreigner criminals’. The broad literature review conducted shows a clear lack of a comprehensive framework regarding the link between foreign nationals and non-immigration criminal offences in the UK, which motivated this research to contribute to the migration and criminological studies.
- 11 - Aims and objectives
The purpose of this study is not to simply critique others for their oversights, but to develop a new, empirically based, theoretical framework of analysis that will persuade criminologists to think in a new direction. The main aim of this study is to provide a criminological understanding of the links between foreign nationals and non-immigration criminal offences. The research argues that consistent criminalisation of foreign nationals, including linking foreigners to different crimes and blaming them for many issues in this country, which the immigration policy and the oft-repeated political discourses show, affects the representation of those foreigners in the CJS. In addition, there are tough numerous crime policies, some of which result in a significant negative impact on the relationship between foreign nationals and the CJS. To achieve the aims of this research the objectives are as follows:
1. Review the extant empirical and theoretical studies related to change in immigration policy and how foreign nationals have been connected historically to different issues including crimes
2. Identify the ‘methods of blame’ which the political, public discourses and media have used to represent the relationship between foreign nationals and non-immigration criminal offences
3. Determine how the role of immigration policy, political discourse and the media in constructing foreign criminality.
4. Identify the challenges and barriers to collecting and publishing data in regards to the nationality of offenders.
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5. Recommend possible ways of addressing the identified findings within immigration policy and the construction of foreign criminality
Research questions
This research will consider the extensive literature, reviewing both immigration policy and criminological aspects of the relationship between foreign nationals and crimes in E&W, and identifying the gap in the previous studies, particularly in the UK context. The research intends to answer the following questions in order to achieve the mentioned objectives:
1. Why there is a wide perception of a relationship between foreign nationals and crime in the UK?
• Are foreign nationals more criminalised than British Nationals?
• Are foreign nationals subject to stereotyping and/or a target of discrimination?
2. What is the historical basis of the relationship between foreign nationals and crime in the UK?
• When did the criminalisation of foreigners started?
• What are the factors that helped to raise the criminality of foreigners?
• What was the public attitude to foreign nationals?
3. What was the role of immigration policy, which has been adopted by different ruling political parties?
• What was the influence of the Labour party on the criminalisation policy of foreign nationals?
• Was there any difference when the Coalition Government came to power in 2010?
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• How has immigration policy helped to enhance the construction of foreign criminality, or obligated some foreign nationals to commit different sorts of crimes?
4. How can the overrepresentation of foreign nationals in British prisons be explained?
• Are foreign nationals more likely to commit crimes than British nationals?
• What sorts of crimes foreign nationals are more likely to commit?
• Are foreign nationals targeted in the CJS institutions, and why?
5. How has the relationship between foreign nationals and crime discussed in the political and parliamentary debates, and what are the implications?
Data and Methodology
This research looks at how measures of immigration and crime policies, and related legislation, directly and indirectly impacts on the criminal behaviour that foreign nationals display in E&W and if those foreigners present a real threat to British society.
The idea of looking at the relationship between foreign nationals and crime in the context of social constructivism and immigration policy was one that arose out of an initial duality of research interests: (1) New immigrants and their impact on present-day immigration policy (2), Historical immigration policy. What seemed at the start to be two quite separate fields of interest came to gradually appear more closely connected. In particular, the study of present day immigrants and immigration policy implications demand a historical perspective.
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This research considers the impact of immigration policy on enhancing debates relating to foreign national criminalisation. It does so by both reviewing the theoretical and empirical literature and by providing an extensive evidence base for the UK. Offending data that includes the nationality of those people caught up in the CJS has been collected from different sources, including different government institutions, and national surveys, as well as Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to the Home Office, Metropolitan Police Services (MPS), Ministry of Justice (MoJ), and UKVI. These secondary data have been analysed in order to illustrate the level of criminality that foreign nationals demonstrate in E&W, the type of criminal offences those foreigners are imprisoned, resulting in a comparison of these results with British nationals’ criminal behaviour and representation in the CJS statistics.
Although this research is not explicitly focused on the expansion of immigration crimes, presenting insight into this helps illustrate the general tendency of the government to criminalise foreign nationals, and connect them to different illegal activities. This will ultimately feed negative public sentiment and perpetuate the stereotyping of foreigners as criminal.
In addition, the general themes of the parliamentary debates and the related political discourses have been gathered from a time period of 2001-2014.
This has facilitated an analysis of the political language and the impact of the political focus on the criminality of foreign nationals in the UK. Finally, the outcomes of these two methods have brought into dialogue with another in order to produce a logical conceptual framework for interpreting the relationship between the criminal offences of foreign nationals and the remainder of the offending population.
- 15 - Overview of the research plan
This research has used the restrictive immigration policy and foreign criminality discourses as main variables to examine foreigners’ criminality. In doing so, it begins by looking at the historical context of immigration policy and its influence on encouraging or discouraging different nationalities to settle in the UK. The literature has also shown how foreign nationals have been linked with different issues. It provides a background for analysing foreign national offenders and their relationship with criminal offences. The literature review also considers other aspects, such as how different political parties have changed crime policy when in government between 1997 and 2014. A methodology chapter that outlines the methodological approach taken in this research follows the literature review. Two chapters describing and analysing the collected data follow this. A discussion chapter then presents an evaluation of the findings and analysis of data; before a final chapter concludes, this research findings and limitations (see Table 1.2).
Table 1.2: Research plan Navigation
Chapter Description
Introduction Chapter (1) outlines the background of this research, explains the definitional challenge of immigrant, explains the aim, objectives, and research questions, and presents an overview of the data and methodology and the research’s plan.
Literature review
Chapter (2) looks at the historical background of foreign’ criminality from 12th century -1997, and includes three case studies explaining the construction of foreign criminality in different times; 19th century (Irish), the first half of 20th century (Jews), and the second half of 20th century (BAME)
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Chapter (3) looks at the immigration and crime policies at two different governments: the Labour 1997-2010 and the Coalition (2010-2015). This chapter includes the final case study that explains how political discourses, immigration policy and the media constructed the criminality of asylum seekers.
Theory Chapter (4) incorporates social constructivism theory to foreign criminality in order to explain how the criminality of foreign nationals constructed by immigration-crime policies, political and parliamentary debates, the media and CJS data.
Methodology Chapter (5) shows the research aim and strategy, which includes the secondary (numerical) data and the parliamentary debates. This chapter also shows the challenges that changed the focus of this research completely and obligated the researcher to follow an alternative plan.
Data and
analysis
Chapter (6) presents the statistical representation of foreign nationals in the different stages of the CJS and analyses this data to explain the different trends in FNP population, and the sorts of crimes they are imprisoned for.
Chapter (7) presents foreign criminality discourses in the Westminster Hall, discusses the implication of the anti-immigration debates in the English parliament and shows how foreign criminality discourses change immigration and crime policies, CJS practise and relatively the public attitude.
Discussion Chapter (8) evaluates the findings of this research (the history review, secondary data, and the parliamentary debates) and presents a developed understanding of the reasons behind the over criminalisation and the overrepresentation of foreign nationals in the political debates, offending data and punishment institutions
Conclusion Chapter (9) presents an over view of the whole research; it shows the
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contribution of this research and the limitation, and finally puts some recommendations and future studies.
Appendix 1 The refusal letters of National Offender Management Service (NOMS) to make interviews with FNPs inside prisons.
Appendix 2 Tables of this research
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