Military Migrants

The modern British soldier is routinely portrayed as a hero, while military service is represented as a form of sacrifice that requires recognition from society as a whole. The migrant, in the other hand, remains a focus of resentment, more likely to be seen as a scrounger who drains public resources without giving anything in return. In 1998 the British Army began to recruit from Commonwealth countries, a strategy that simultaneously addressed a labour shortage and the new legal obligations to diversify its workforce. This led to the creation of a new category of migrant-soldiers who found themselves lauded as 'heroes' but stigmatised as 'immigrants' and 'foreigners'.This book explores the phenomenon of Britain's multi-national army, a topic that has passed virtually unnoticed in public debates about immigration, citizenship, multiculturalism, national identity and war. In doing so, it poses searching questions about the relationship between the armed services and the society they are charged to defend.