hostile environment
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.00 in modern English
26
Scrabble Score
18
Letters
5
Syllables
11
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
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.
British usage; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "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."
Usage
- British usage
- Uncountable