ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the origins of the connection between immigration status and welfare entitlement and explores how this has developed through the twentieth century. It focuses on the 1905 Aliens Act and attempts to control entry into the UK and the debates which preceded it, illustrates a long-term construction of the refugee in such a way, as burdensome, needy, socially costly, and consequently undesirable. The chapter contextualises the current attitudes to asylum seekers and in particular their relationship with the welfare state. It traces the connection through the twentieth century to shed light on the current consensus, which places those in search of refuge outside of full entitlement to a range of welfare provision. The British Empire flourished in the nineteenth century the role of biological science gained prominence, on the back of Darwin's ideas about natural selection. Increasingly complex biological classifications gave a pseudo-scientific veneer to the theory of 'race'.
