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The Moral Economy of Welfare and MigrationReconfiguring Rights in Austerity Britain |
eBook Available
A critique of the model of morality driving both domestic welfare reform and the contraction of migrant rights in austerity Britain.
Britain's coalition government of 2010-2015 ushered in an enduring age of austerity and a "moral mission" of welfare reform as part of a drive for deficit reduction. Stricter controls were applied to both domestic welfare and international migration and asylum, which were presented as two sides of the same coin. Policy in both areas has engaged a moral message of earned entitlement and invites a sociological approach that examines such policies in combination, alongside their underpinning moral economy.
Exploring the idea of a moral economy - from its original focus on popular rebellion at the rising price of corn to more contemporary analysis of measures that seek to impose moral values from above - Lydia Morris examines Britain's reconfigured pattern of rights in the fields of domestic welfare and migration. Those in power have claimed that heightened conditions and sanctions for the benefit-dependent domestic population, both in and out of work, will promote labour market change and reduce demand for low-skilled migrant workers, often EU citizens, whose own access to benefits was curtailed prior to Brexit. Morris traces related political discourse through to the design and implementation of concrete policy measures and maps the diminished access to rights that has emerged, paying particular attention to the boundaries drawn in defining target groups, and the resistance this has provoked.
The Moral Economy of Welfare and Migration considers the topology of the whole system to highlight cross-cutting devices of control that have far-reaching implications for how we are governed as a total population.
Exploring the idea of a moral economy - from its original focus on popular rebellion at the rising price of corn to more contemporary analysis of measures that seek to impose moral values from above - Lydia Morris examines Britain's reconfigured pattern of rights in the fields of domestic welfare and migration. Those in power have claimed that heightened conditions and sanctions for the benefit-dependent domestic population, both in and out of work, will promote labour market change and reduce demand for low-skilled migrant workers, often EU citizens, whose own access to benefits was curtailed prior to Brexit. Morris traces related political discourse through to the design and implementation of concrete policy measures and maps the diminished access to rights that has emerged, paying particular attention to the boundaries drawn in defining target groups, and the resistance this has provoked.
The Moral Economy of Welfare and Migration considers the topology of the whole system to highlight cross-cutting devices of control that have far-reaching implications for how we are governed as a total population.
Details
280 Pages, 6 x 9
ISBN 9780228006633
August 2021
Formats: Cloth, Paperback, eBook
"Lydia Morris's complex and cogent analysis of boundary construction, and of the immanent logic surrounding social welfare and immigration policy, is insightful and powerful." Bridget Anderson, University of Bristol
"Lydia Morris has made considerable contributions to our understanding of legal civic stratification of migrants and provides a clear presentation of this vitally important topic in her latest book." Emma Carmel, University of Bath
“A major contribution to understanding recent policy developments … provides both a lasting conceptual framework for policy analysis and a political-economic basis on which to contest the neo-liberal paradigm.” The British Academy 2023 Peter Townsend Prize jury
"Lydia Morris has made considerable contributions to our understanding of legal civic stratification of migrants and provides a clear presentation of this vitally important topic in her latest book." Emma Carmel, University of Bath
“A major contribution to understanding recent policy developments … provides both a lasting conceptual framework for policy analysis and a political-economic basis on which to contest the neo-liberal paradigm.” The British Academy 2023 Peter Townsend Prize jury
Lydia Morris is professor of sociology at the University of Essex.
Acknowledgements vii
Abbreviations ix
Introduction 3
1 The Moral Economy of Austerity: Analysing UK Welfare Reform 28
2 Welfare, Migration, and Civic Stratification: The Shifting Terrain of Rights 51
3 Moralizing Welfare and Migration: A Backdrop to Brexit 73
4 Reconfiguring Rights: Boundaries, Behaviours, and Contestable Margins 96
5 Moral Economy from Above and Below: Contesting Contraction of Migrant Rights 119
6 Activating the Welfare Subject: The Problem of Agency 142
7 The Topology of Welfare-Migration-Asylum: Britain’s Outsiders Inside 167
Conclusion: The Moral Economy of Welfare and Migration 189
Notes 213
References 219
Index 257
Abbreviations ix
Introduction 3
1 The Moral Economy of Austerity: Analysing UK Welfare Reform 28
2 Welfare, Migration, and Civic Stratification: The Shifting Terrain of Rights 51
3 Moralizing Welfare and Migration: A Backdrop to Brexit 73
4 Reconfiguring Rights: Boundaries, Behaviours, and Contestable Margins 96
5 Moral Economy from Above and Below: Contesting Contraction of Migrant Rights 119
6 Activating the Welfare Subject: The Problem of Agency 142
7 The Topology of Welfare-Migration-Asylum: Britain’s Outsiders Inside 167
Conclusion: The Moral Economy of Welfare and Migration 189
Notes 213
References 219
Index 257
Co-winner
The Richard Titmuss Book Award
Social Policy Association
2022
Co-winner
Peter Townsend Prize
The British Academy
2023
The Richard Titmuss Book Award
Social Policy Association
2022
Co-winner
Peter Townsend Prize
The British Academy
2023
