The Staggers: Immigration

The last Labour government was accused of not giving enough speeches on immigration. Personally, I doubt that was its real problem; but the present government have clearly decided they won't make that mistake. Today's speech by immigration minister Damian Green generated what for him will be a gratifying amount of coverage, running from last weekend's Sunday Times through this morning's papers and into today's broadcast ... read more

Today's news has focused on the link between immigration and the benefits system, prompted by a joint op-ed in the Telegraph by ministers Chris Grayling and Damian Green, suggesting that too many migrants are claiming benefits.

Last week, the line from the anti-immigration camp -- spanning Conservative ministers, the pressure group MigrationWatch, and right-wing newspapers including the Telegraph, Mail, Express, and Sun -- was that immigration ... read more

Eighteen months ago, MigrationWatch published a report which attempted to show a relationship between immigration and youth unemployment in different parts of the UK. The methodology was comprehensively demolished here by my IPPR colleague Sarah Mulley -- but not before the report had generated the desired round of headlines such as "Migrants rob young ... read more

Many commentators predicted that immigration would lose political salience during 2011. Back in the spring, I explained here why I thought this unlikely. Economic downturns tend to heighten concerns about migrants competing for jobs, and exerting downward pressure on wages. Public spending cuts tend to sharpen debates around migrants adding to the pressure on public services, social housing in particular, and around migrants claiming benefits. Beyond the economic ... read more

Brodie Clark, the head of the UK Border Agency (UKBA) has quit over the relaxed passport check row, accusing Theresa May of misleading the public. He says that he plans to lodge a claim for constructive dismissal.

Suspended from his job last week, he faced the prospect of disciplinary action and even the possibility of criminal charges. Making it very clear she had no intention of resigning herself, the Home Secretary ... read more

The Home Secretary, Theresa May, is under pressure after she admitted that she had personally authorised UK Border Agency (UKBA) staff to not carry out full passport checks on hundreds of thousands of people arriving in Britain.

In the Commons, she conceded she had decided in July to sign off a four-month pilot scheme allowing reduced passport checks for European Union passport holders, as a way of dealing with crowds and ... read more

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Last week's farcical debate on EU membership wasn't triggered by an e-petition (it was an old fashioned paper petition) but it has encouraged every reactionary going to submit one. The latest e-petition, put forward by Migration Watch head Andrew Green, calls on the government to "to take all necessary steps" to reduce immigration and prevent the UK population reaching 70 million ... read more

This week marks the fiftieth anniversary of Germany's notorious 'Guest worker' programme, in which millions of Turks were invited to come to Germany as temporary workers, discouraged from integrating and often vulnerable to exploitation. Decades later, the German government was forced to admit that the policy was a spectacular failure, as millions of Turkish migrants ended up staying permanently, and the country continued to suffer ... read more

David Cameron is making something of a habit of rewriting his speeches. Last week, he hastily withdrew his politically insensitive and economically illiterate call for people to pay off their credit cards, now, ahead of his speech on immigration at 1pm, he has abandoned plans to require all firms to publish a list of migrants working for them (an attempt to shame companies ... read more

According to a YouGov poll in today's Sun, 78 per cent of people believe that David Cameron is "unlikely" to deliver his immigration promises. They're right. There is no chance of Cameron meeting his pledge to reduce net migration to "tens of thousands" a year by the end of this parliament.

As I reported last month, net migration to Britain rose by 21 per cent ... read more

In 1939, my father came from County Cork to dig roads. He searched for lodgings in Kilburn and Cricklewood, but it proved to be tough. House after house had signs outside which read "no Irish".

Britain has moved on immeasurably since then. Migration has been good for our country. Britain has been built on a history of successive waves of migration. Migrants have enriched our society and they are essential to ... read more

I blogged yesterday on how the Daily Mail misrepresented the latest migration figures by claiming that immigration had "soared by 20%". In fact, it was net migration - the difference between the number of people entering and leaving Britain - that rose by 21 per cent last year, mainly due to the lowest level of emigration since June 2005. The paper's journalists were, as I wrote, guilty of either ... read more