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The Role of Networks in the Development of UK Migration Policy

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  • Will Somerville
  • Sara Wallace Goodman

Abstract

This article examines the ‘policy networks’ that existed between 1997 and 2007 in UK asylum, economic migration and immigrant integration policy. The analysis shows that employers and businesses (together with other state and non‐state actors) were part of a tightly organised, ideologically cohesive economic migration ‘policy community’. This policy community was crucial to the development of economic migration policy, in contrast to the development of asylum and integration policies. The central argument of this article is that the mainstream interpretation of UK immigration policy change (that change was driven by an elite‐led, powerful executive) is correct in tracing the dynamics of asylum policy development between 1997 and 2007 under New Labour, but wrong for the development of immigration policy as a whole, which was more complex, and where businesses played a key role.

Suggested Citation

  • Will Somerville & Sara Wallace Goodman, 2010. "The Role of Networks in the Development of UK Migration Policy," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 58(5), pages 951-970, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:polstu:v:58:y:2010:i:5:p:951-970
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9248.2009.00814.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Keith Dowding, 2001. "There Must Be End to Confusion: Policy Networks, Intellectual Fatigue, and the Need for Political Science Methods Courses in British Universities," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 49(1), pages 89-105, March.
    2. Jeremy Richardson, 2000. "Government, Interest Groups and Policy Change," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 48(5), pages 1006-1025, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Paola Bertoli & Veronica Grembi & The Linh Bao Nguyen, 2023. "Birth outcomes in hard times among minority ethnic groups," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(1), pages 263-294, January.
    2. Chris F. Wright, 2017. "Employer Organizations and Labour Immigration Policy in Australia and the United Kingdom: The Power of Political Salience and Social Institutional Legacies," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 55(2), pages 347-371, June.
    3. Louise Reardon, 2018. "Networks and problem recognition: advancing the Multiple Streams Approach," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 51(4), pages 457-476, December.
    4. Owen Parker, 2023. "The Politics of Free Movement of People in the United Kingdom: Beyond Securitization and De‐securitization?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(3), pages 747-762, May.
    5. Léger Félix Ntienjom Mbohou, 2023. "Understanding the role of institutions in the multiple streams approach through the recognition of the diaspora as a development agent in Cameroon," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 56(2), pages 355-376, June.
    6. Bertoli, Paola & Grembi, Veronica & Nguyen, The Linh Bao, 2020. "Birth in Hard Times When You Belong To Minorities," GLO Discussion Paper Series 729, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    7. Linn Axelsson & Nils Pettersson, 2021. "Spatial shifts in migration governance: Public-private alliances in Swedish immigration administration," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(7), pages 1529-1546, November.

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