Let’s sort out the migration mess

17 March 2007

Austen Ivereigh says that illegal immigration is both a symptom and a cause — of British economic success. The dead hand of the state is getting it wrong, as usual: time for a total rethink

The trick of amnesties is to balance the right to migrate with maintaining a deterrent. The Strangers into Citizens campaign proposes just this: that those who have been in the UK for at least four years should be given a two-year work permit, at the end of which, subject to certain criteria (employer and character references, proficiency in English, and — all right, Gordon Brown — community service), they are given leave to remain. Criminals and extremists are weeded out; thousands of people get the dignity and rights which they deserve; the underground economy shrinks, and general happiness reigns; employers can take on the people they need; taxpayers no longer pay for the asylum logjam; the Exchequer benefits by about £5 billion; MPs no longer have to spend half their surgery hours dealing with immigration problems; the police can concentrate on deporting the genuine undesirables; and Britain takes its place once more as a beacon of realism and pragmatism.

The Home Office says this would only encourage more illegal migrants. But there is no evidence from Europe of this. In the US, Republicans back regularisation as a means of enforcing borders: by shrinking the underground economy, you curb the trade on which illegal immigration thrives. The real reason the government is opposed — according to a former policy adviser in No. 10 Downing Street who drew up three amnesty plans, all shelved — is simple: it is afraid of not looking tough. Could it be that the Glasgow Nazis are stronger than they look?

Austen Ivereigh is co-ordinator of Strangers into Citizens, a campaign by the Citizen Organising Foundation.