With eight months until the election, immigration still tops the list for many voters across the country. So Labour needs to be able to address those concerns but to do so with policy, messaging and campaigns on immigration that are founded and firmly planted in our labour values and promote a real understand of what people want and what the country needs.
There is nothing in Labour history, values or traditions that requires us to be in favour, in principle, of unlimited immigration. We have and always will be for managed migration.
So a starting point for a Labour policy has to be how we better police our borders to guard against illegal immigration and have managed migration to the benefit of the UK as a whole
Under this Conservative-Liberal Democrat government the number of people refused entry at British ports and then subsequently deported has fallen by nearly half, and only six in 100 reports of illegal immigration result in an investigation and only 1.5 in 100 result in removal.
A Labour government in 2015 has to reverse this trend and make our communities stronger by enforcing border control so that everyone who lives here is entitled to be here. That means proper exit and entry checks so we can count people in and count them out. It means re-introducing finger print checks at ports like Calais. It means quickly removing those who have lost the right to stay, ensuring foreign criminals aren’t able to game the system and stay here for years. And it means effective controls on the skills we need for the UK.
So that also means, the next time any more countries apply to join the EU, Labour will make sure that their citizens have to wait the maximum amount of time possible before being able to come here to work and have restriction on child benefit and child tax credits being paid to children who do not live in the UK. Labour will make learning English a priority for new arrivals, and prioritise English language teaching and maintaining welsh language traditions in Wales, rather than spending on translation services so that those who do come integrate and make our community stronger. It means making sure we strengthen checks on short term student visas.
But it’s not just strong border control that counts. Our economy and social programme need the best doctors, engineers and entrepreneurs to make it succeed. But alongside that, the system must be fair and balanced for the people already here. That means we have to have strong borders, a robust immigration system that ensures that immigration does work for the UK and the people that can come and contribute and add to our society are welcome; why wouldn’t we want the best and the brightest to come and live and work and add to our communities?
But there are clearly different kinds of immigration; many people across the country have livelihoods in one of the thousands of UK business that need skilled people to come here to work. For example, since the Tory-led government came to power many universities have seen fewer foreign students, with the first national drop in numbers in 29 years, and this means those universities can afford fewer security guards, catering staff and administrators. That’s why we have called for student to be removed from the governments net migration target, and that’s why any policy can’t be one that stops people who will create jobs and business investing in the UK.
But we know also that people have concerns based on their own experience. For too many people that means insecure jobs being undercut as a result of loopholes in agency worker laws, or bad employers cramming people in to poor quality rented housing. In some areas, rising levels of immigration has put pressure on local schools, housing or the NHS – pressures which, currently aren’t being sufficiently managed. In other areas the pace of change in a community has left people anxious as the place they have lived in all their lives has changed beyond recognition.
So when people are here we will make sure the rules are applied fairly in work, with access to homes, and in our public services to ensure fairness to all is at the heart of our communities which in the long term will help with public attitudes towards immigration.
These anxieties and experiences, especially for those on low incomes, are right at the heart of their concern about living standards and the future of their communities. But that’s why we would take action; stopping exploitation in work and ending the undercutting of wages and conditions. Through stronger enforcement of the minimum wage with councils having a local role and increased fines to £50,000. It means extending the legislation regulating Gangmasters, and strengthening the law to make it illegal for recruitment agencies just to recruit from abroad for jobs here at home and making sure we give people here the skills they need for the future by ensuring that companies bringing in workers from outside the EU also have to offer an apprenticeship. And it also means cracking down hard on the beds in sheds and overcrowding that are driving down wages across the board.
And it means being fair to families; a future Labour government will review the spousal visa system and the domestic workers legislation that in effect keeps low paid workers in modern slavery.
Immigration will continue to be a key concern for people across the country, but it will also continue to be a requirement for a successful and thriving UK economy. But it’s only Labour who are willing to encourage a truly progressive vision for immigration in a modern UK.
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David Hanson MP is shadow minister for immigration