Often I feel that those of us who dislike the continuous and unpatriotic efforts of various politicians, media and others to illegitimately demonise immigrants in order to mask the real source of the country’s poor know what we hate - we know abject immorality and counter-productive policies of hostility when we see them - but not so much what the concrete positive policy for the future should exactly be.
The report “Time for change: The evidence-based policies that can actually fix the immigration system”, from Zoe Gardner, presents 9 key recommendations. The full thing should perhaps be compulsory reading for anyone who is trying to form an opinion on the matter.
Below are the 9 key reforms the report demands:
- Safe routes
- The right to work and faster, better asylum decisions
- A not-for-profit asylum accommodation system
- Reform labour inspection and protections from workplace exploitation
- Scrap restrictive employer-sponsored visas
- Integrate asylum seekers into the points-based system
- A simplified, universal pathway to settlement after five years
- Reintroduce birthright citizenship and reduce integration barriers for children
- Embrace a positive narrative about immigration, diversity and belonging
The “why?” and “what about?” side of things is argued at length in the full report of course.
Something else the report brings up that I hadn’t thought of in a while is how the UK (and other countries) reacted to Ukrainian folk who wanted to flee Putin’s violence. We did not see nearly the negative frenzy surrounding the relatively large numbers of people involved then than when the average small boat containing a few people from amongst the world’s least privileged imaginable lands on our shores. Nor do we see endless newspaper stories today about whichever the self-contradicting hot topic of the day is about Ukranians “relying on handouts” or “stealing our jobs”.
There are obvious reasons why this is the case. But it is further evidence that another way is possible; indeed another way is essential.