As we mark Windrush Day this year, it is an opportunity both to celebrate the immense contribution of the Windrush Generation and their descendants, and to reflect on what the scandal revealed about the consequences of getting immigration policy wrong.The Windrush scandal first came to public attention in 2018, revealing that people with the right to live permanently in the UK were unfairly treated as illegal immigrants. This was due to a combination of factors.  An act of Parliament in 1971 entitled many people from the commonwealth “the right of abode” in the UK, but the Home Office did not provide documentation proving their status, and record-keeping of this was inadequate. The hostile environment – a set of immigration policies introduced by successive governments to discourage people from entering the country illegally - meant that many wrongfully experienced the full force of immigration enforcement measures as a result.