Introduction: Special issue on ‘Policing, migration and national identity’
| DOI | 10.1177/1362480619898015 |
| Author | Ana Aliverti |
| Date | 01 February 2020 |
| Published date | 01 February 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Editorial |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480619898015
Theoretical Criminology
2020, Vol. 24(1) 3 –7
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/1362480619898015
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Introduction: Special Issue
on ‘Policing, Migration and
National Identity’
For some time, the mobility of the global poor has been framed as a national security
problem and policy priority for governments and inter-governmental institutions across
the world (D’Appollonia and Reich, 2008; Guild, 2003; Huysmans, 2006). In this con-
text, the police have been routinely tasked with detecting unwanted foreigners and rout-
ing them out of the country (Armenta, 2017; Weber, 2013) or, as Giulia Fabini (2017)
explained in the case of Italy, with managing ‘illegality’. Increasingly, the policing of the
border occurs inland and migration controls are becoming ingrained in ‘homeland polic-
ing’ (Gundhus and Aas, 2016; Weber and Bowling, 2004).
In the United States, the Secure Communities programme aims at systematically
checking the immigration status of everyone arrested by the local police, whose biomet-
ric information is then transmitted to the federal immigration agency, the Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (ICE). While the programme’s primary justification is crime
prevention and community safety, the local police’s role in it consists of exchanging
information on arrestees with ICE to facilitate their removal (Cox and Miles, 2013;
Stumpf, 2015). In Britain, aided by an ever expanding web of co-operators, including
teachers, university lecturers, doctors and nurses, landlords, employers and the public
(Aliverti, 2015; Bowling and Westenra, 2018), the police have taken up migration con-
trol duties as part of their daily job. Partnering with immigration staff, police officers in
regional forces across the country routinely trace people’s right to be in the country as
they are instructed to identify ‘removal opportunities’ of foreigners who are deemed as
public nuisances or security threats due to their incivility or criminal behaviour.
According to a report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration
(Vine, 2014: 3), since 2012 when police and immigration partnership was formalized
under the remit of ‘Operation Nexus’, the number of identification of foreign nationals
in custody suites and police-instigated removals surged. Further afield in countries such
as Australia and Italy, where the police have historically retained migration control pow-
ers along with crime prevention ones, the police have recently started to use them more
systematically. Against the backdrop of an increased politicization and racialization of
migration from poorer neighbouring countries, police ID checks are increasingly used to
prove migration status and disproportionately fall on ‘suspicious populations’ (Melossi,
2000; Weber, 2011).
Articles in this special issue explore the role of the police in border work. By revisit-
ing debates on the relationship between police and national identity, authors reflect on
898015TCR0010.1177/1362480619898015Theoretical CriminologyEditorial
editorial2020
Editorial
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