Author Archives: Ditch Townsend

Opinion: What’s wrong with immigration control?

By Ditch Townsend | Sat 29th September 2012 - 11:15 am

Having lived for much of my life outside our over-developed country, and working in contexts of extreme poverty and social exclusion in Africa and Asia, I am disheartened by some significant assumptions in the immigration debate:

Firstly, what gives us the right to preserve a global status quo comprising an economically, politically, and culturally dominant and exclusive club? Many phrases used amongst Liberal Democrats, seem paternalistic, even oppressive, towards people whose plight we perpetuate by our insularity:

“‘Soft’ on immigration“: We’re not ‘soft’ enough, if it means being repentant enough to share the world’s resources and opportunities.

“An ‘earned amnesty’ for …