(Un)holy alliances: The UK’s hostile environment in faith-based spaces, and its implications for refugee protection

This paper aims to interrogate the United Kingdom (UK)’s so-called ‘hostile environment’ and its implications for refugee protection. The work looks in particular at the mixed-status setting of faith-based spaces, which with the advent of the ‘hostile environment’ have gone from being one of few places where people with a range of statuses could access support to becoming a locus of immigration control. It is argued that the reimagining of faith-based spaces as an arena for immigration enforcement is key to the functioning of the ‘hostile environment,’ a policy package ostensibly targeting undocumented people which in fact impacts on people with a range of statuses, with worrying consequences for refugee protection.

Semi-structured interviews with faith-based community volunteers who engaged with the Home Office are analysed alongside data disclosed by the Home Office under the Freedom of Information Act. Combined with analysis of the
legal barriers to accessing protection, this work questions how voluntary the ‘voluntary’ returns being promoted in faith-based spaces really are, given the lack of options available to those unable to regularise their status.