ABSTRACT
This chapter explores different roles in the implementation, reform or resistance to asylum and immigration policy. Restrictions are deliberately imposed as part of asylum and immigration policy as well as welfare reforms, but the implementation of these restrictions cannot be attributed entirely to malicious intent. There is an increasingly blurred distinction between those who provide support and those who implement restrictions, with the outsourcing of government responsibilities. Essential, often lifesaving, support is provided by many voluntary sector organisations, legal representatives, informal solidarity and local community initiatives. Organisations seeking to provide immediate relief may adopt the language of the Home Office and focus on the apparently pragmatic and technical task of identifying people with attributes associated with entitlement to support. It is perhaps indicative of a perceived association between power and knowledge, if awareness of intersectional injustice results in reinforcing Home Office distinctions of entitlement, rather than seeking to build solidarity and learn from the insights of wider movements of people with lived experience. It is stressed that there may be different elements of anybody's contributions and that distinctions between people in different sectors are not, and never have been, absolute.
