On the frontline: what is the real price of cutting migrants' rights?

The way migrants are treated by national laws and policies in terms of status, access to employment, health and other rights is relevant to us all and impacts on us all in the long term. Over the past few years the government has made massive changes to legal aid funding of immigration cases, and to immigration law, culminating in the 2014 Immigration Act. The stated aim of this piece of legislation was to create a deliberately hostile environment for migrants. What is the impact of a highly punitive immigration regime? I write as a lawyer working with migrants and asylum seekers at a Law Centre, and reflect on the difficulties produced within a hostile migration environment, for both migrants and law practitioners alike.