Regimes of Care and Control: UK Borders and Immigration Policing in the National Health Service

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This research examines the extension of UK borders and immigration policing into theNational Health Service (NHS). In a post-9/11 age of data-driven security, and in thecontext of the 'hostile environment', recent years have seen the UK incorporateimmigration checks and bureaucratic acts of border policing into a range of banal(typically institutional) spaces, including NHS hospitals and surgeries. This hasincluded the introduction of the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) (2015), upfrontcharging for overseas visitors (2017) and various alterations to the Memorandum ofUnderstanding allowing the Home Office to trace immigration offenders using data heldby NHS Digital (2017; 2018). However, while several scholars have considered theuneasy coupling of care and control and acknowledged the enrolment of hospitals andsurgeries in bordering, none have focused on the specific roles these institutions havecome to play in UK migration policy. In this context, the research examines how datasharing, upfront charging and the IHS function as border controls and how the ethicaltensions of this are generating new political alliances and forms of civic action.Employing a qualitative multi-method approach, it will draw on the experiences ofmultiple groups on the frontline to understand how UK border policing is beingextended into regimes of healthcare. Conducted amidst precipitous policy changes anda major post-Brexit shift in the healthcare entitlements of EU migrants, this research isboth novel and exceptionally timely, allowing it to contribute to NHS and public-policymaking and interdisciplinary research on borders, immigration and healthcare.