From ‘Stop the Boats’ to ‘Smash the Gangs’: migration and securitisation in contemporary capitalism

While purporting to protect refugees, the Labour government’s new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill further criminalises asylum seekers, conflating criminal law with immigration law and equating desperate people forced to use ‘irregular routes’ to seek safety with ‘immigration criminals’ and the ‘terror threat’. The Bill proposes a range of new criminal offences and the creation of a new Border and Security Command along the lines of the Department of Homeland Security in the US. The article argues that the movement of people follows the labour demands of capital and that racialised borders are crucial to regulate the movement of labour. Neoliberal states have long racialised surplus populations who are deemed to be without market value; today the project of the securitisation of borders is seen as a ‘fix’ for the multiple crises facing contemporary capitalism.