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Court ethnographies have commonly relied on the physical presence of the ethnographers. This paper explores the opportunities and the challenges of conducting court ethnographies without this physical presence. Specifically, it examines what it means to conduct remote ethnographies of legal processes where neither the ethnographer nor the other hearing participants are physically co‐present. The sudden shift towards remote hearings in fieldwork conducted during the COVID‐19 pandemic presented an opportunity to compare in‐person and remote ethnographic methods. Through a case study of bail hearings in the immigration tribunal in the UK, this paper explores the value and challenges associated with conducting remote ethnographies and asks how they can help to shed light on the impact of absences in legal events. Court ethnographies have commonly relied on the physical presence of the ethnographers. This paper explores the opportunities and the challenges of conducting court ethnographies without this physical presence. Specifically, it examines what it means to conduct remote ethnographies of legal processes where neither the ethnographer nor the other hearing participants are physically co‐present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study aims to contribute to our understanding of how second‐generation immigrants negotiate their multiple identities, and construct their feelings of belonging. We focus on second‐generation ethnic Kurds, a stateless ethnic group with a complex political and social history, who have seldom been investigated in a UK context. Drawing on data from interviews with 14 Kurds living in the UK, this paper outlines the tensions in Kurds' lived experiences of Kurdish and British identity; in particular, experiences of feeling "othered" and how this manifests in relation to their identities. We found that Kurds most commonly dealt with some of the tensions they experienced from not belonging or feeling like an "other" by constructing new identities with more permeable boundaries of belonging; in this study, this was achieved through a "place‐based" identity. In sum, this paper offers a novel contribution to discourses of belonging, by demonstrating how the nuances of belonging and its lived complexities manifest in the experiences of UK‐based second‐generation Kurds, and the resultant strategies that they adopt to navigate tensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Has skilled immigration into the UK led to a reduction in the training of native‐born workers? To address this concern, this paper describes a theoretical model where immigration can affect the training of native‐born workers both positively and negatively, and where its effects may differ according to the characteristics of the migrant and of the training firm's sector. It then investigates this issue empirically using UK Labour Force Survey data from 1995 to 2018. At the aggregate level, there is a small positive association between skilled immigration and native training rates. However, a more disaggregated analysis finds that the relationship between immigration and native training depends on the skill level of the immigrant, the skill level of trainees, and the sector into which immigration occurs. In particular, traded goods sectors show a positive association between training of UK‐born workers and both unskilled and skilled immigration. In non‐traded high‐wage sectors, the association between skilled immigration and UK‐born training is negative. These findings highlight the importance of allowing for heterogeneous effects from immigration when formulating policy or when modelling immigration's effects across the wider economy. This paper is part of the Economica 100 Series. Economica, the LSE "house journal" is now 100 years old. To commemorate this achievement, we are publishing 100 papers by former students, as well as current and former faculty. Jonathan Wadsworth received his MSc and PhD from the LSE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies in the field of international migration focus on utilizing migrant networks in migration process, outlining their role in the choice of destination country as well as in the job search process. However, relatively few of the studies discuss migrant networks' role in the choice of a specific location within destination cities. This paper contributes to this research area by providing additional insights into the motives behind choosing place of residence by immigrants in contemporary European cities. In our paper, we use data of a tailor‐made survey of 610 Polish immigrants, who emigrated from Poland to the UK shortly after 2004, that is, after opening of the British labour market for Polish citizens. Our study results reveal that propensity towards living in the Polish neighbourhood is inversely correlated with migrants' English language proficiency. Moreover, we discover that networking within the Polish diaspora is to a large extent limited to family and close acquaintances, which most likely results from the limited generalized trust towards other Poles. Based on our study results, we argue that settling in geographical proximity of migrant's ethnic group is likely to maintain its relevance in the contemporary cities, especially in case of immigrants with poor destination language skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transnational families have long used migration as a strategy for upward social mobility. However, migration projects are increasingly complex and often do not involve a single move from one country to another. Drawing on qualitative interviews, this paper explores how Latin American families negotiate different stages of their migration from Latin America to Spain to the UK. The paper demonstrates how families negotiate within the opportunity structures afforded to them to achieve physical and social mobility. These opportunities are structured by different legal regimes and the way that immigration, citizenship and labour market policies are implemented. The initial migration from Latin America to Spain had enabled Latin American families to gain economic stability and EU citizenship, but at the cost of a period of family separation. However, faced with the financial crisis, some families opted for onward migration to the UK, a process that resulted in families becoming "re‐transnationalised." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to broaden existing understandings of migrant worker flexibility drawing on the data from the two ethnographic studies of low-wage employers and Eastern European migrants in Scotland. It focuses on the temporal aspects of flexibility production in employment discourse and temporal expectations about flexible migrant workers. Our findings reveal double movement of interruption and remaking of temporal flexibility, which challenges directional expectations about time and unsettles the assumed connectivity between flexibility's temporal elements. Uncertainty and instability of migration and employment frameworks undermine the attempts of employers and migrants to manage time, to develop continuous portfolio careers and coherent temporal horizons. Furthermore, contested temporal expectations about flexible migrant workers create fragmented and fractured "flexiworkers" that do not fit within the existing temporal frameworks of signs, routines, and rhythms. The paper suggests re-orientation of flexibility debates beyond temporal measurement, outside familiar temporal structures, and towards redefinition of flexible worker identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic and Brexit were separate yet inter‐related developments which affected the British National Health Service (NHS). The UK's state‐funded health sector had historically relied on migrant labour and depended on a migration infrastructure designed to solve its nursing labour shortages. The analysis of primary qualitative and secondary quantitative data shows that the NHS migration infrastructure increased its orientation towards Asia to compensate for the effects of Brexit. The paper reveals how the persistent use of temporary visas along with conditional contractual arrangements has led to various exclusions for migrant nurses and midwives. These data also demonstrate how international travel restrictions associated with COVID‐19 created temporary obstacles for nurses' inflows. Alongside Brexit, this has also resulted in an increase in outflows amongst EU health workers. The article identifies the development of migrant support infrastructure amongst Filipino and Indian nurses as a major COVID‐19 linked innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of intra‐company transfers in the United Kingdom government's labour immigration policy over the last quarter century. It demonstrates their role in determining the number of non‐European Economic Area foreigners working in the country and examines the way policy, both generally and specifically, has developed. It presents new statistical data and uses that evidence to examine the interplay between the government and multinational corporations in the determination of a significant element of foreign labour immigration. Its findings demonstrate that intra‐company transfers have consistently played a major role in the management of UK labour immigration with a small number of occupations and countries of origin characterizing the system at various times. It concludes that the system has operated through a symbiotic relationship between government and major companies to the mutual benefit of both. However, 'Brexit' and the COVID‐19 pandemic are leading to reassessment of political and corporate objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews 26 reports into deaths and serious abuse of children in families who were subject to the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) rule. Our analysis illustrates vulnerabilities caused by exclusionary policies, exacerbating social deprivation and isolation experienced by the children and families and making it more difficult for professionals to respond in ways which safeguarded children's welfare. Drawing upon a social model for protecting children that requires recognition of the social determinants of harm and the economic, social and cultural barriers faced by families, we examine the experiences of children and families with NRPF who were the subject of a serious case review, and the responses of agencies responsible for safeguarding child welfare. We conclude with recommendations for practices aimed at promoting the rights and well‐being of children and families subject to NRPF rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emigration of doctors is an international, longstanding, and ongoing phenomenon. Emigration of psychiatrists at various levels of their career from the UK to other countries is an occurrence talked about within peer groups and organisations. Here, the authors explore the numbers of trained psychiatrists on the specialist register of the General Medical Council who left the UK in the last five years and their countries of destination. The research uncovers the scale of the issue and the countries that exhibit strong 'pull' factors for psychiatrists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If public attitudes towards the welfare state, inequality and immigration are becoming increasingly polarized, as recent political events might suggest, the space for progressive social policies is more constrained. Using data from the British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA) spanning 23years, we analyse trends in these attitudes, examining whether there has been divergence between those who have been more and less exposed to disadvantage through changes in the economy and the welfare state across more than two decades. Taken in this longer term context, and examining characteristics not previously considered in relation to public attitudes such as lone parenthood and disability, we find little evidence of polarization in attitudes to welfare, inequality and immigration and even some evidence of attitudinal gaps narrowing. We conclude that given this lack of division, there may be greater room for more pro‐welfare and progressive policies than the prevalent narrative of polarization suggests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article charts the transformation, between 1997 and 2021, of the family visa and immigration permit infrastructure from a public into a commercial service in the United Kingdom. In doing so, it reveals a process of state‐market hybridization underpinning the commercialization of migration regulation. Drawing on the analysis of legal archives, policy reports, and marketing materials directed at family migrants spanning 1997–2021, it presents fresh, systematic evidence of how, since 2007, a commercialized state‐market hybrid migration infrastructure for visas and immigration permits has developed in the UK. We show how the trend of state‐market hybridized commercialization has cascaded through three dimensions of migration infrastructure, as follows: (1) state and public immigration agencies, (2) outsourcing visa application firms, and (3) private immigration advisers. Predicated on this hybrid public–private commercial infrastructure, application procedures for visas and immigration permits have become increasingly reconstituted as commercial, rather than public, services. This transformation has created a new transactional logic that stratifies individuals' right to family life along socioeconomic lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stressors of immigration detention and negative host country experiences make effective access to health care vital for migrant detainees, but little is known regarding the health experiences of this populations and the barriers to healthcare access. The present research investigates immigration detainees' experiences of health‐related help‐seeking in the distressing and stigmatised environment of UK immigration removal centres (IRCs), as well as staff members' experiences of providing help. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 40 detainees and 21 staff and analysed using theoretical thematic analysis guided by the social identity approach. The findings indicate that the practical constraints on help provision (e.g. lack of time and resources, the unpredictable nature of detention) are exacerbated by the complex and conflictual intergroup relationships within which these helping transactions occur. These transactions are negatively affected by stigma, mutual distrust and reputation management concerns, as well as detainees' feelings of powerlessness and confusion around eligibility to receive health care. Some detainees argued that the help ignores the systematic inequalities associated with their detainee status, thereby making it fundamentally inappropriate and ineffective. The intergroup context (of inequality and illegitimacy) shapes the quality of helping transactions, care experiences and health service engagement in groups experiencing chronic low status, distress and uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: People held in immigration removal centres have a range of vulnerabilities relating both to disappointment at imminent removal from the country of hoped-for residence and various antecedent difficulties. An important subgroup in the UK is of foreign national ex-prisoners who have served a period of incarceration there. Prisoners generally have higher rates of mental disorders than the general population. It is, however, not clear whether foreign national ex-prisoners in UK immigration removal centres have higher rates of mental disorders than other detainees.Aims: To compare the screened prevalence of mental disorders, levels of unmet needs and time in detention between foreign national ex-prisoners and others in Immigration Removal Centres in England.Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of cross-sectional survey data from a previously published study in one Immigration Removal Centre.Results: The 28 foreign national ex-prisoners had been in immigration detention for longer and reported greater levels of unmet needs than the other 66 detainees. The highest levels of unmet needs among the foreign national ex-prisoners were in the areas of psychological distress and intimate relationships. After adjusting for time spent in detention, there was evidence to suggest that foreign national ex-prisoners had a higher screened prevalence of substance use disorders, autism spectrum disorders and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder than the other detainees.Conclusions/implications For Clinical Practice: This study supports the view that foreign national ex-prisoners are a vulnerable group within immigration detention who have needs for enhanced and specialist service provision, including appropriate arrangements for health screening and active consideration to alternatives to their detention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]