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Jon Cruddas on immigration

June 22, 2012 10:53 am

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Back in 2010, Labour’s policy chief Jon Cruddas wrote:

“We don’t have an immigration problem – we have an immigration management problem.”

I asked Miliband about this after his speech today. He didn’t say clearly whether he agreed or disagreed with Cruddas’s statement – although he implied that he agreed, saying it was impossible to separate the economy and immigration.

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Related posts:

  1. Cruddas talks to Prospect about housing, immigration, jobs
  2. Balls and Burnham return to immigration debate
  3. Immigration is not just a Daily Mail issue
  4. We shouldn’t apologise for our immigration record
  5. Nice door closing Ed. But the immigration horse bolted years ago
  • http://profile.yahoo.com/QDMFX65KM5STSAFHAC4FOLFTO4 fran

     ”We don’t have an immigration problem – we have an immigration management problem.”We read statements like this and think do values matter anymore in the Labour party ? Do the party have a principled stance on anything or is it all about ‘managing’ . The core Labour party voters (old and newer) -  deserve to hear the honest, straightforward arguments for and against immigration. Not some Ed Milliband fudge about UK citizens being “locked out” of the job market. How can you be locked out in comparison to workers who weren’t educated here, have no cultural capital here and often do not speak English as a first language ?  Doesn’t say much for the level of our young people’s life skills and completely overlooks the fact that many of our citizens find work in  other parts of Europe under the free movement of labour legislation. The country’s elite, including Labour elite, understand the benefits of immigration and migration to the economy and to an ageing population but no politician has the courage to  show leadership on this issue and articulate the positives. All the Labour leader is doing with speeches like this is buying in to  the right wing ‘attack dog’ agenda – a missed opportunity here …

  • Daniel Speight

    Open borders would be a wonderful ideal. Unfortunately back to the real world.

    Ed Miliband is right to say it is a class issue. It’s easy for the middle and political classes to hold the high ground, but it’s not them and their kids who are under job and wage pressure. And this isn’t talking about the Mrs. Duffy’s white working class only. It’s also about black and Asians workers, and let’s not forget single mums and so on.

    It’s right that Britain should have open doors to those fleeing persecution but until the whole world joins in it should be open to all economic migrants. Of course it’s an immigration management problem. What immigration policy isn’t a management problem. It’s a balance between the economic benefits of immigration and the problems for our own working class.

    In the meantime rich middle class kids can complain about the unfairness of it all while being served by a migrant in a coffee shop on below minimum wage, or their parents have a visiting maid service, or their father finds the cost of prostitution is going down. Good for some, not so good for others.

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