Many months ago, I wrote a piece on immigration policy for Lib Dem Voice in light of the calls for a variety of illiberal measures from caps to quotas. It is with some regret that I return to this issue now to view what you could call a radically changed landscape. We are now in coalition with the Conservatives, in agreement with the need for a ‘cap’ on ‘non-EU migrants’ and in favour of harder, tougher and nastier barriers against ‘foreigners’. This rhetoric is both disappointing and damaging, not only for myself but also for the thousands of other Commonwealth citizens who proudly voted Liberal Democrat at the ballot box, as well as to other Commonwealth Citizens who voted for other parties on the 6th May.
Like many other migrants to Britain from outside the EU, from Merlene Emerson who was our Parliamentary Candidate in Hammersmith this May, to the widely lauded Jimmy Choo, I come from an Anglophone South East Asian family. Most of us constructively contribute towards Britain. We speak English, pay our taxes, obey the law, love this country as our own and integrate seamlessly into the multicultural fabric of contemporary Britain. Many of our frontline workers in public services are from similar non-EU backgrounds. From Filipino nurses and doctors in NHS hospitals to Commonwealth personnel in the Armed Forces, we are the people who would be locked out of Britain if this Coalition Government sets a cap at an arbitrary and unrealistic level. The thousands of highly skilled non-EU graduates from our universities, who work hard, contribute to society and pay taxes with the intention of settling will lose out simply for being foreign. We are the scapegoats for the ‘problem’ of immigration, even though we hardly make up 20% of total inward migration.
It would be easy at this case to go straight ahead and call for us to resist plans for a cap. However, we need to be pragmatic in an age of compromise and consensus politics. The Conservatives need this cap- simply to please their braying right-wing and others such as Frank Field and Nicholas Soames who both seem oblivious to the impact a crippling cap will have on both the country and on London. Our duty, as a party of fairness, will be to ensure any cap is set fairly, insulated from the irrational pressure to reduce it to an unrealistic number. We should push to ensure the thousands of Commonwealth Citizens and non-EU graduates who live and work in Britain are given a fair chance to settle here if they are able to constructively contribute. We must make sure that the valid objections to what I still think is an unworkable cap made by the CBI, London First and other bodies are listened to, and taken into full account by our coalition partners.
In light of this, I am proposing a set of suggestions that I intend to put forward at Autumn Conference in the form of a motion, which will call upon Liberal Democrats in government to fight for:
- The preservation of the Tier 1 Post Study Work category and its exemption from the overall cap on non-EU migrants
- The exclusion of Students and Dependents from the overall cap on non-EU migrants
- The establishment of a numerical cap undertaken by an independent commission and not by Parliament or individual Ministers, and that this cap must be realistic in its objectives.
- The establishment of fast-track schemes to allow the best and brightest non-EU and Commonwealth graduates from British Universities to stay on and contribute positively to the economic recovery.
A failure to ensure a rational, fair and sensible solution at this stage will cause far-reaching damage to Britain. The loss of hundreds if not thousands of top-level non-EU graduates from institutions like Oxford, Cambridge, the LSE and Imperial College because of an unjustified and unfair cap will hamper our ability to build a sustainable recovery and damage London’s reputation as a driving force in the global economy. The loss of highly skilled designers, architects and other professionals due to the narrow-minded and almost bigoted approach being advocated by anti-migration groups will hinder the growth of a ‘new economy’ grounded in green investment and soft skills. London will lose its status as a truly global city- with skills draining to other cities, and with that, the loss of Britain’s engine for growth.
I know from my discussions with Conservatives that there is widespread support for a pragmatic and rational policy on non-EU migration. Moderate Tories understand the importance of non-EU migration- and so do their allies in the CBI and London First, who have both denounced plans for a cap as unworkable and damaging. If we push hard enough, we will be able to find a settlement that will help close the door on the irrational debate on immigration while ensuring a policy that is fair towards non-EU migrants who work hard, obey the law and wish to contribute to Britain.
We fought this election on a platform of fairness. Nick Clegg said countless times that fairness ran in our blood as Liberal Democrats. Therefore, it is absolutely imperative that we call for an immigration system that also emphasises fairness for migrants. Failing to do so will be an unspeakable betrayal not only to the thousands of Commonwealth and non-EU citizens already here but to ourselves for allowing right-wing irrationality and xenophobia to override what is clearly in the long-term interest of Britain in the context of a globalizing world.
Edwin Loo is the Co-Chair of London Liberal Youth and a member of the Chinese Liberal Democrats. If you would like to support a motion calling for fairness in our immigration policy, contact Edwin at [email protected]. To find more about the student campaign against the immigration cap visit http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=124862170872228&ref=ts
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4 Comments
It is annoying that although we have the best policies on immigration, whoever we go into coalition with simply do not, and we have to compromise.
However we as a party are entitled to have our own policies on this matter even if they conflict with those of the government. Government ministers have to adhere to collective responsibility, but that does not mean the rest of us have to.
I do not think the policy of the party should support a cap. But we can have a policy which whilst it opposes a cap, can recommend the most humane way of implementing one.
We live in a crowded country and have no obligation to allow any non-EU immigration. Having said that I believe that immigrants make a huge contribution to this country, both economically and in other ways. It is right and proper that immigration is kept under control, particular in areas like the south east where the infrastructure is already having trouble coping with th existing population. These controls should however be based on an assessment of both the needs of employers and the capacity of the infrastructure, not some arbitrary cap. The Lib Dem policy of regional immigration would allow this assessment to be carried out area by area and I think it is a shame that it cannot go forward for now.
The Tories wanted a cap and as the majority partner in the coilition it is not unreasonable that they get their way, particularly in light of the concessions they made in other areas. All we can do now is try to ensure that the cap is not set unrealistically low, and to push for exemptions for specific groups where it is approrpriate, such as students.
Edwin Loo
Like many other migrants to Britain from outside the EU, from Merlene Emerson who was our Parliamentary Candidate in Hammersmith this May, to the widely lauded Jimmy Choo, I come from an Anglophone South East Asian family. Most of us constructively contribute towards Britain. We speak English, pay our taxes, obey the law, love this country as our own and integrate seamlessly into the multicultural fabric of contemporary Britain. Many of our frontline workers in public services are from similar non-EU backgrounds. From Filipino nurses and doctors in NHS hospitals to Commonwealth personnel in the Armed Forces, we are the people who would be locked out of Britain if this Coalition Government sets a cap at an arbitrary and unrealistic level.
Yes, and the problem is there are many millions of people across the world who would like to come and live in this country and could say the same.
Now, just why, when there are so many people unemployed here are we having to bring in Filipino nurses? Are the medical schools of this country empty of applicants, having to scrape around saying “Hmm, maybe an GCSE grade C in Biology and a BTEC in Business-speak means this person could be a doctor, anyway we’ll be out of of job unless we fill our places, so yes, accept”? No, they aren’t, are they? (some Engineering schools however ARE in that situation … thanks to medicine taking up so many of those with good science A-levels).
If the answer is that there are people abroad who can do these jobs better than Brits, what is in effect being said is what Bertolt Brecht said in Die Lösung.
High immigration is part of the control of British people – we are being told “you are crap – there are others who will do your job for cheaper, we will bring them in”. The old-style right-wing may have brayed about immigration, the new-style right realises what a bargain it is – let OTHER countries spend their tax money educating people to a decent standard, let other countries develop the social bonds and good understanding that make people employable, and let ours be about dog-eat-dog competition where we’ll moan about having to pay any of our profits in tax to pay for education because we don’t need to. It’s cheap nannies and cheap plumbers, and even cheaper “no questions asked” contracted out cleaners who won’t ever go on strike etc, and if they do get uppity you inform Border Control and they take them away which you couldn’t do if you gave the job to a council estate chav.
Meanwhile, leave the council estate chavs to the actual job of adjusting to this new multi-cultural way of life, and accuse them of being racist if they complain. It doesn’t matter to Mr Rich (or Lord Rich after to donations to the Labour/Tory Party) because he lives in a big house in all-white rich-land out in the country and they don’t call it racism when HE hands on his house to his children. Anyway, if this country ever seriously gets in a mess, Lord Rich has some nice tax haven bolt hole he can run to anyway.
You get my point, Edwin? Maybe you think I am racist to put it this way, but I am confident enough to know I am not to dare to do so. How easy it is to shut down the debate that is needed on these issues by playing the “racism” card. Why is there no decent left left in this country who can fight for poor people and know how to do it? I’m beginning to feel I’m doing this stuff single handed.
Once again, what Matthew said with bells and whistles on. It’s a typically materialist approach to see immigrants simply as “wealth creation”.
Did anyone catch Nightwaves on Radio3 which discussed Liberalism, and where multiculturalism was dismissed an inherently racist [1]? Was I the only one to shout at the radio that Archie Sinclair was not the MP for only Sutherland?
[1] Despite oft repeated claims, Britain has not been multicultural since the Iron Age. Anyone who thinks so should be asked to explain why there was the need then to emancipate Roman Catholics. *Cosmopolitanism*, however, is cool.