The topology of welfare-migration-asylum: Britain’s outsiders inside

Starting from the observation that recent immigration controls seem ‘hewn from the same rock’ as the welfare reforms, this article seeks to identify commonalities of approach, technique and effect across both fields. These can usefully be viewed through the concept of topology – a process of folding and filtering that challenges clear distinctions between inclusion and exclusion. Alongside a stratified system of rights based on conceptions of desert and apparent in both the welfare and migration/asylum systems, we find overlapping features that emerge from a harnessing of rights in the name of controls, and increasingly affect both citizens and non-citizens alike.