Medicine, racism and immigration control

Abstract

This article shows how medical controls and examinations have always been an important part of immigration control and how such controls, which operate on the seemingly objective basis of scientific fact, are in many cases no different from legal and administrative controls. On the contrary, while health checks do play an important role in preventing the spread of ill-health, they are at the same time based on a racism which seeks to keep black people out of Britain and in many circum stances are not based on scientific fact at all but on extensive discretion. In addition, this article examines the related question on the use of medical techniques in the control of immigration where no question of health is involved.