The culture of (border) control in Britain: Staff, precarity and distress

In this paper, we describe key findings from a survey of ‘staff culture’ that we designed and then administered to 170 private-sector custodial officers employed on the immigration detainee escorting contract in the United Kingdom in 2023. The ‘Detainee Escorting Staff Survey’ (DESS) offers the first independent measure of staff attitudes to and experiences of enforcing this form of border control. The final part of a multi-year, mixed-method study, it recorded a range of views about the purpose and nature of the job and of immigration control more broadly. It also found striking levels of distress, including a high rate of suicidality, particularly among ethnic minority participants, as well as among those who had been employed in this job for a long time. The survey responses reveal a system that exploits and creates conditions of precarity and exclusion for staff as well as for those in their custody. Viewed in this light, it makes clear how the culture of border control is rooted in and shapes much wider and detrimental social and economic relations.