Expanding mechanisms of border control increasingly depend on the criminalization of non-citizens. While some criminology scholarship might suggest such measures announce an increasing governance of migration 'through crime', we argue that it is not simply a case of punitive crime control strategies leaching into migration policies. Not only are foreigners in a far more vulnerable position to the British citizen, but the restrictions they face play important constitutive roles in newly invigorated discourses of citizenship and nationalism. In this article, we suggest that criminologists must move on from studies that emphasize control and criminalization to consider more broadly the implications of basing a politics of national identity that aspires to 'solidarity' and shared values on the forcible exclusion of growing numbers of people. © The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (ISTD). All rights reserved.