ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an analysis of the increasing use of immigration status to restrict access to council housing. It focuses on the treatment of ‘illegal immigrants’, a category which has been less studied than the more controversial category of asylum-seekers. The chapter argues that housing officers are, in practice, compelled to report applicants by the complexity of the immigration tests, the arrangements for how applicants are checked, and the fact that two of the immigration questions are unanswerable without contact with the Home Office. It explores the concepts from other work on inter-agency collaboration to analyse how housing officers are led into participating in immigration control. The chapter also argues that the purpose behind this viciously exclusionary programme is partly to distract attention from the housing shortage. It describes the real purpose of the attack was to force housing officers to participate ever further in the process of immigration control.
