Immigration check refusenik stripped of Keele fellowship

A historian who was stripped of his honorary fellowship by Keele University after he refused to comply with “hostile environment” immigration checks said he had been “thunderstruck” by his treatment.

Philip Morgan, who retired as a senior lecturer from Keele in 2019, said he was given just five days to move out of an office associated with his honorary post when he questioned why he needed to show his passport for a “right to work” check upon his return to teach at a summer school in August.

Having worked full-time at the Midlands university for 35 years until his retirement, since when he has taught postgraduates on a part-time basis, Dr Morgan questioned whether the checks were necessary. He later explained that he had “profound objections” to the 2016 Immigration Act, introduced by Theresa May when she was home secretary, which is often seen as having created a “hostile environment” for migrants by requiring landlords, employers and public authorities to undertake multiple checks of identity documents.

However, Dr Morgan said, he was told that he should apologise for the “impatience and intransigence” shown in his emails and submit the “necessary” paperwork. When he declined to do so, he was informed by Donna Lee, executive dean of Keele’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, that his honorary title would be “withdrawn with immediate effect.” He was given a week to empty his office and download research materials before he was evicted.

“I was completely thunderstruck – it seems like vengefulness to punish me in this way,” said Dr Morgan, who has also lost email and library access.

“Everyone assumes that I must have done something awful, or been abusive, to be punished like this. But I have to explain that this isn’t the case.”

Asked about one email sent to human resources, in which he requested £250 as a “fee for helping” with the right-to-work check, Dr Morgan denied that it was unprofessional, stating: “It was meant as a joke – it was clearly a flippant comment.”

“It seems a harsh punishment, not just because of my 30-plus years of service to the university, but I was also helping out during the pandemic, teaching on Teams and supervising postgraduates, as well as on summer schools,” he said.

On why he did not submit his passport, Dr Morgan said he believed the legislation had caused hardship for immigrants in the UK and was responsible for the Windrush scandal, in which Commonwealth citizens were illegally detained and deported because they did not possess the right documents, having emigrated to the UK as children at a time when they did not have passports of their own.

“It would be quite easy to wave my passport and say ‘I’m OK’, but the Windrush generation couldn’t do this,” he said. “In any case, it’s not a legal requirement, and I couldn’t imagine it would be such a huge issue – I thought they would apply some common sense.”

Dr Morgan said he has yet to hear about his appeal to Keele’s council, but said he had been told by the vice-chancellor, Trevor McMillan, that senior leaders supported the disciplinary measures because “his response to a reasonable request from HR was not appropriate” and it was “imperative that we continue to be able to meet legislative obligations that safeguard our ability to operate internationally”.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com