From public to commercial service : State-market hybridisation in the UK visa and immigration permit infrastructure, 1997–2021

Nehring, Daniel and Hu, Yang (2021) From public to commercial service : State-market hybridisation in the UK visa and immigration permit infrastructure, 1997–2021. British Journal of Sociology, 72 (5). pp. 1325-1346. ISSN 0007-1315

Text (From public to commercial service State-market hybridisation in the UK visa and immigration permit infrastructure, 1997-2021.Accepted Version)
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Abstract

This article charts the transformation, between 1997 and 2021, of the family visa and immigration permit infrastructure from a public into a commercial service in the United Kingdom (UK). In doing so, it reveals a process of state-market hybridisation underpinning the commercialisation of migration regulation. Drawing on the analysis of legal archives, policy reports and marketing materials directed at family migrants spanning 1997–2021, it presents fresh, systematic evidence of how, since 2007, a commercialised state-market hybrid migration infrastructure for visas and immigration permits has developed in the UK. We show how the trend of state-market hybridised commercialisation has cascaded through three dimensions of migration infrastructure: (1) state and public immigration agencies, (2) outsourcing visa application firms, and (3) private immigration advisers. Predicated on this hybrid public-private commercial infrastructure, application procedures for visas and immigration permits have become increasingly reconstituted as commercial, rather than public, services. This transformation has created a new transactional logic that stratifies individuals’ right to family life along socio-economic lines.