Positive thinking

Nando Sigona, University of Birmingham   “Daddy, have we jumped the queue?” She looked at me with her big inquisitive eyes, a little confused and worried. Matilda is four and in reception class. She’s learning a lot of fascinating things at the moment, about planets, robots, rockets and space exploration. She’s also learning about how we share with others and behave in class. One of the things drummed into her very early on at school was that you don’t jump the queue. You must wait for your turn when it comes to speaking in circle time or being served food. “Daddy, have we done something wrong?” she added. After a moment of puzzlement, I joined the dots. The speech Theresa May gave to business group the CBI, in which she said that a new post-Brexit immigration system would stop EU migrants from “jumping the queue” ahead of migrants from non-EU countries, had somehow reached her, probably not the prime minister’s target audience. The impact of the CBI speech on he...

Nicholas Allen, Royal Holloway ; Erica Consterdine, University of Sussex ; Feargal Cochrane, University of Kent ; John-Paul Salter, King's College London , and Maria Garcia, University of Bath   After a summit with her cabinet that sparked several ministerial resignations, British prime minister Theresa May has published a controversial white paper setting out her government’s vision for Brexit. This will now be sent to the European Union for further negotiations. Experts assess the proposals in key areas. An appeal to party unity Nicholas Allen, Reader in Politics, Royal Holloway, University of London The publication of the Brexit white paper is the latest step in Theresa May’s effort to broker a common position for negotiating future UK-EU relations. It is also the latest step in what might be called the Cabinet “peace process”. Senior ministers have been sniping at each other for months and two cabinet ministers – David Davis and Boris Johnson – have res...

Adrienne Yong, City, University of London   The process for approximately 3.5m EU citizens currently living in the UK to apply for a new “settled status” after Brexit has now become clearer, after the Home Office published details of the scheme. But there are still some issues that EU citizens will need to watch out for. There are four steps to a successful settlement scheme application: A digital application form Fee of £65, or £32.50 for children Proof of identity/nationality A photo There are a further three “simple” requirements to satisfy the settlement scheme: Proof of identity Proof of eligibility Proof of suitability Eligibility looks at whether the EU citizen is a resident in the UK, or if they are actually a family member of an EU citizen. Suitability is a criminal background check to ensure the individual is not a threat to public security. Settled and pre-settled status The official date of withdrawal...

Erica Consterdine, University of Sussex Immigration policy under Theresa May’s tenure might be the most draconian in Britain’s history. Never has an administration focused so much time and effort on an anti-migration policy – and one that is failing by all counts at that. Countless restrictive measures have been placed on almost every migration stream since 2010, when the coalition government set itself a flawed net migration target. This was driven by a Conservative manifesto pledge to reduce annual immigration from hundreds of thousands of people to tens of thousands. Behind the changes to the immigration rules has been an overarching policy to create a “hostile environment”. The public is now seeing the harsh and inhumane implications of this policy, with the Windrush generation , who helped to rebuild post-war Britain, being denied their rights. But what is this hostile environment and where did this policy come from? The story starts back in 2004, when the Labour...

Jen Bagelman, University of Exeter and Jonathan Cinnamon, University of Exeter A few weeks ago – back when we used to teach and research rather than stand at picket-lines challenging the marketisation of the university – we discovered that we share something in common. As international staff our right to strike and participate in peaceful, collective action is limited by the Home Office. Days before the UK-wide universities strike we were anonymously slipped the following information under our door, printed off and photocopied from the University and College Union ( UCU ) website: For staff employed under a Tier 2 visa, you should be aware that your sponsor is required to report unauthorised absence (such as strike action) if it continues for more than ten consecutive days … your sponsor is required to report unauthorised absences to the Home Office. The Home Office considers industrial or strike action as an unauthorised absence. So if you take industrial action ...

By Jason McIntyre , University of Liverpool and Richard Bentall , University of Liverpool   Psychosis, sometimes called schizophrenia, is a psychological state characterised by symptoms such as paranoia and hallucinations. In England, one person in every 100 will be diagnosed with a psychotic disorder at some point in their lives. Disturbingly, evidence gathered from Western nations suggests that immigrants experience psychosis at rates two to five times higher than non-immigrants. Our recent research and theorising suggests that discrimination and social exclusion may lie at the heart of the immigrant psychosis problem. We define who we are largely on the basis of the groups to which we belong. This internalisation of our group memberships is referred to as “social identity”. Social groups may revolve around common interests and beliefs such as book clubs or political parties, but they may also emerge from social categories such as gender, culture, and e...