ABSTRACT
The evolution of immigration policy from control at the external frontiers to the everyday bordering of migrant communities has generated different forms of activism in support of the rights of migrants over the decades. This chapter traces these developments from the 1970s and 1980s, when legal challenges to Home Office actions were the dominant mode of action, through the emergence of community resistance in the 1980s and 1990s, to the current situation where migrant right activism has contributed to the sense of the deep crisis of immigration control policy. This is a direct consequence of the move towards the everyday bordering of immigration policy, which has made the multiple injustices of immigration enforcement a matter that concerns the whole communities’ public service organisations. In doing so, it has led activists to make the case against immigration policy to a diverse audience extending across anti-racist organisations, trade unionists, feminists, and faith community groups. Migrant rights activism now operates in the political mainstream in the UK and as such stands on the cusp of affecting real change in the system of control.
