Immigration: “This is the key issue”

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

Tim Finch of the ippr has written an important piece called “Labour must be positive on immigration (and honest about the costs)” at Left Foot Forward.

Tim writes:

“Labour were wrong to ignore public concern about immigration, and nobody should ever suggest that it is racist to talk about immigration controls. It is good to see the current Home Secretary saying that we need honest and open debate – and that mistakes have been made in the past. But acknowledging the critics is one thing, pandering to them is another. The prevailing tone of Labour speeches on migration these days is miserably sour and negative – with almost no attempt made to put across the case for migration – which is still strong. Moreover, our own research on public attitudes suggests that this defeatism is misplaced- that with a credible system of management and control in place Labour can win public support for a positive approach to immigration.”

Last November, at the time of Gordon Brown’s speech on immigration, I wrote:

“Instead of a few deliberately crafted asides or speeches to the assembled lobby, Labour’s position on immigration will require much deeper thought, and a broad, wide-ranging and open debate. For better or worse, immigration is an issue that should be front and centre in the next general election, and a key topic for discussion in the possible televised debates, as it almost always is in the US. Only when that happens will Labour be able to address voters’ concerns on these matters and make the positive case for immigration that it has – up to now – too often failed to do.”

Since then, I’ve been knocking on doors a lot for our council campaign in Islington, and immigration is an issue that is raised frequently, predominantly – though not exclusively – by residents in social housing.

Last week, we received this return card from a local resident:

Immigration remains a polarising issue, and one we shouldn’t be afraid to talk about. As Tim says, and as this letter highlights, Labour’s failure to make the positive economic and social case for the levels of immigration over the last decade – but also its relative failure to articulate the advantages and disadvantages of the government’s points-based system of acquiring British citizenship – has been damaging. As with too many other issues, government action has been too top down, with too few real people consulted, leaving people feeling disconnected.

But Tim rejects the perceived “deliberate social engineering” as “wild notions” cultivated largely by the right wing media after Andrew Neather’s “rash” statements last year, saying:

“In the end the political damage caused was such that the volte face was inevitable – which is why we have a Labour government acting and talking so tough on immigration.”

I still believe strongly that immigration should be a central issue for debate during the election campaign, so we can seek to acknowledge and address people’s concerns like those highlighted above. That doesn’t mean dog-whistling; it means a full and honest appraisal and audit of where we are, and the policy proposals that will define migration in the future.

Read Tim Finch’s article on Left Foot Forward here.