In this article, I draw on ongoing qualitative research on immigration detention and deportation in the UK, to explore the contribution of criminology to debates over citizenship. I pay particular attention to the interdependence of the state and the private sector in enforcing border control, examining how public-private collaboration both legitimates but also depends on a shifting, racialised criminalisation of foreigners. In so doing, I show how the criminal justice system has been put to work in defining and restricting the membership of the community of value within the UK.

Mary Bosworth, Criminalisation, race, and citizenship in UK border control, Citizenship Studies, 2022.