Policy Press

The Privatization of Immigration Detention

Actors, Practices, and Effects

By Federica Infantino

Published

Sep 1, 2025

Page count

160 pages

ISBN

978-1529214369

Dimensions

203 x 127 mm

Imprint

Bristol University Press

Published

Sep 1, 2025

Page count

160 pages

ISBN

978-1529214376

Dimensions

203 x 127 mm

Imprint

Bristol University Press

As the controversy over immigration control continues to unfold on a global level, this timely book explores the widespread involvement of private companies in UK detention and removal policies.

Based on original empirical data, the book pulls back the curtain on the day-to-day practices of the UK Home Office and private service providers, providing critical insights about the inner workings and failings of their processes.

Offering a unique analysis of the enactment of power and state sovereignty, this organizational ethnography will inform scholarly, policy and society debates.

Federica Infantino is Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at the Migration Policy Centre, European University Institute.

Setting the stage of the privatization of detention

Co-operation in Practice

Organizational responses

Towards a global critique of the privatization of detention?