Theme: Political Economy | Content Type: Journal article

Free to read

The UK's ‘Safe and Legal’ Humanitarian Routes: from Colonial Ties to Privatising Protection

Michaela Benson, Nando Sigona and Elena Zambelli

shutterstock_2135454043

| 1 min read

In this article, the UK's ‘safe and legal (humanitarian) routes’ are evaluated by examining how they are positioned in the post-Brexit migration regime, and how these domestic provisions compare to those underwritten by international protections. The Hong Kong British Nationals (Overseas)—HK BN(O)s—and Ukraine visa schemes are an area of focus which, combined, account for the vast majority of those arriving in the UK for the purposes of humanitarian protections since Brexit. Despite being formally presented under the same banner, the schemes have significant differences in terms of eligibility criteria, costs, rights and entitlements. Moreover, on closer inspection, while they share an overarching policy vision informed by foreign policy priorities, these new provisions are underpinned by different genealogies and policy logics. While the HK BN(O) scheme is rooted in the tradition of ancestry visas and colonial entanglements and requires that potential beneficiaries pay for protections, the Ukrainian schemes are more closely aligned with recent refugee resettlement schemes and share with them the push towards greater involvement of private and community stakeholders in humanitarian protection.

Read the full article on Wiley

Need help using Wiley? Click here for help using Wiley

  • -DRYbIOC_400x400.jpg

    Michaela Benson

    Michaela Benson is Professor in Public Sociology, Lancaster University, with expertise in migration and citizenship.

    Articles by Michaela Benson
  • nando-sigona-230x2302.jpg

    Nando Sigona

    Nando Sigona is a professor of international migration and forced displacement at the University of Birmingham and director of the Institute for Research into Superdiversity.

    Articles by Nando Sigona
  • image-20220722-22-h5ea7j.jpg

    Elena Zambelli

    Elena Zambelli is an Honorary Research Associate and former Senior Research Associate in the Department of Sociology, Lancaster University.

    Articles by Elena Zambelli
Volume 96, Issue 3

Latest Journal Issue

Volume 96, Issue 3

This issue features a collection titled 'The Intellectual and Political Legacy of David Marquand', who died in April 2024, edited by Colin Crouch, Ben Jackson and Peter Sloman. In this collection, authors including Jean Seaton, Will Hutton and Hilary Wainwright consider Marquand's legacy as a great progressive thinker, his biography of Ramsay MacDonald, Labour's first prime minister, and the role of socialism for Marquand. Other articles include a commentary by Deborah Mabbett titled 'Welfare reform by numbers'; Jeremy Gilbert and Alex Williams on 'The Vices of Values: Matthew Goodwin and the Politics of Motivation'; Helen McCarthy on 'Why the WASPI has no Sting: Gender, Generation and Pension Inequalities'; and Sam Taylor Hill, Tariq Modood and John Denham on 'Multicultural Nationalism: Saving the White Working Class from Blue Labour?' A selection of book reviews feature Edmund Fawcett's review of 'Nationalism: A World History' by Eric Storm and Samuel Cohn's review of 'Controlling Contagion: Epidemics and Institutions from the Black Death to Covid' by Sheilagh Ogilvie.

Find out more about the latest issue of the journal