HS3T90: Poor Law to Hostile Environment: Repatriation, Deportation and Exclusion from Britain 1800-2016

Module code: HS3T90

Module provider: History; School of Humanities

Credits: 20

Level: Level 3 (Honours)

When you'll be taught: Semester 2

Module convenor: Dr Daniel Renshaw, email: d.g.renshaw@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2024/5

Available to visiting students: Yes

Talis reading list: Yes

Last updated: 21 May 2024

Overview

Module aims and purpose

This module will examine the fraught and often controversial language and policy based around concepts of repatriation and expulsion of migrant and minority groups in modern Britain. Beginning in the early nineteenth century and concluding in the twenty-first century, it will consider concepts of the ‘self’ and the ‘other’, what constitutes ‘foreignness’ and ‘home’, attitudes towards migration, and the relationship between voluntary and forced forms of repatriation. Students will gain an understanding of how migration, minority identity and responses to migration over a long chronological period have shaped modern British politics, economics, culture and society. They will also be able to identify long-term historical trends, the relationship between ideas and policy, and also the cyclical nature of the discourse on migration, and how the use of negative characterisations and associations are recycled in the targeting of different migrant and minority groups at different times and in different contexts.  

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to: 

1. Understand the long-term processes that lead to exclusion and the removal of groups from a society;  
2. Appreciate the role that migration and responses to migration have played in modern British history; 
3. Appraise critically the primary sources and historical interpretations of the subject; 
4. Organise material and articulate arguments effectively in writing and debate. 

Module content

The module will adopt a long-term chronological focus, considering the political, social, and cultural elements of removal from one country to another, and make frequent comparisons between forms of repatriation and deportation in different time periods in modern Britain. Beginning at the start of the nineteenth century, the module will commence by examining forced removal of Irish migrants to Britain before, during and after the Great Famine of the 1840s. The economic, political and religious contexts of this wave of large-scale repatriation will be looked at. The module will then consider ideas of repatriation before the First World War, with an emphasis on the complex question of the return to Eastern Europe of Jewish migrants, and how the deportation of immigrants was enforced by the British government after the Aliens Act of 1905. Moving forward, it will consider voluntary and forced repatriation of different migrant groups during the First and Second World Wars, and the rise of fascism in Britain which made use of the rhetoric of expulsion. Continuing into the post-war era, the course will look at demands for repatriation of New Commonwealth migrants from the 1950s to the 1980s, the rise of the National Front, the presence of Enoch Powell and government schemes of ‘assisted return’ for migrants. It will conclude with the controversies of the early twenty-first century.   

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching and learning will be by a variety of methods, which includes: 

• Lectures; 
• Seminars, which Seminars rely on structured group discussion and may also include seminar papers by students, discussion of evidence, team-based exercises, and debates; 
• Online exercises, including quizzes and worksheets; 
• Independent study. 

Study hours

At least 33 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 40% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three working days;
• the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three working days of the deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

Essay plan to be submitted halfway through the semester.  

Reassessment

Additional costs