ABSTRACT
The primary purposes of this chapter are to describe major changes in British law on immigration and to focus attention on particular administrative rules, regulations and procedures comprising the immigration control regime developed between 1979 and 1990. Section one reviews post-1945 immigration legislation. Section two looks at immigration law changes from 1979–86. Section three concentrates on the 1987–90 immigration rules and law changes, with an emphasis on the present immigration rule requirements which have to be satisfied in order to attain a visa. This chapter provides the essential background for the analysis of the impact of the legislative and regulatory regime on individuals and on groups of immigrants which follows in later chapters. It allows us to build a picture of the nature of immigration laws and rules which attracted much criticism from the individuals interviewed Glasgow. The Scottish dimension in respect of the parliamentary establishment of the British immigration regime is very limited. Although Scotland now has its own parliament, this parliament has relatively limited powers, and laws enacted at Westminster on issues such as immigration are applied across the whole of the United Kingdom.
