Although many of the laws that control the entrance of foreigners into Great Britain have been enacted since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the July 7, 2005 bombings in London, Britain has long been suspicious of foreigners. The 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act extended and deepened existing entry controls, strengthening the investigation and enforcement power of immigration personnel. This has occurred even as the demands of global capitalism have exerted pressure to make national borders more permeable. Immigrants who come into Great Britain without being fully vetted and found worthy to participate in Britain’s socioeconomic life under an acceptable legal status are viewed as criminals who must be identified through various surveillance methods and detained until their status and disposition are determined. Such controls on immigrants inject into British society a distinctiveness of worth between being a citizen and a noncitizen, not only in terms of legal rights, but also in terms of a sense of belonging and acceptance. These circumstances should concern not only those who question the ethics of an exclusive rather than inclusive approach to border control, but also those who support a rights-based view of liberal democracy. In an attempt to define and fix British terms of belonging and restrict the mobility that increasingly characterizes human experience, the British Government erodes the autonomy and social trust it claims to prize. 78 references