Meaning of hostile environment | Babel Free

Definitions

1. An immigration policy in which service providers such as doctors, landlords and banks must perform ID checks to verify that potential clients have legal right to remain.
   UK, uncountable
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see hostile, environment.
   uncountable

Examples

“As Liberty (2018: 5) have argued: 'The hostile environment is a sprawling web of immigration controls embedded in the heart of our public services and communities.'”

“Among the targets of the hostile environment policy (it was later used euphemised as the 'compliant environment' policy) were those who became, through no fault of their own, entangled in what became known as the Windrush scandal.”

CEFR level