Calls grow for regularisation in the UK, whilst Sarkozy looks to ban such measures throughout Europe
At a time when French policy on immigration is looking tougher than ever calls are growing in the UK – somewhat surprisingly perhaps, given the prevailing popular attitudes towards immigrants – for a large-scale regularisation of illegal immigrants. I have already mentioned the ‘Strangers into citizens‘ campaign on this blog (and it now has its own facebook group), but now the ippr has come out in support of the campaign [press release, see also BBC]. Its recommendations are as follows:
- Irregular migrants who are already in the UK should be eligible to apply for temporary work permits and issued with an ID card.
- Those who show they have been working and contributing to the UK would be issued with two year temporary work permits, and their families will be allowed to remain with them.
- These permits could be renewed under the new points-based system, with extra points awarded to those who can show they have been in the UK for a long period.
- There would be a requirement to learn English for renewal of the permit.
No one convicted of an offence would be eligible.
They are based on an analysis of how much illegal migrants could contribute to the tax system (an estimated £1 billion p.a., a huge net gain if one considers that it would cost £4.7 billion to deport them all – based on estimated figures of numbers of course).
It is particulary interesting to see arguments that have become marginalized in France, where a consensus has developed around the need for tougher controls, enter the mainstream in Britain. I haven’t yet read the report in full but I do wonder how it tackles the concern, made explicit in Sarkozy’s lettre de mission to Brice Hortefeux that mass regularisations whilst producing a quick fix in fact boost the number of candidates for further migration (also the Tories line it seems). Perhaps the one-off nature of this measure – which overall I think makes excellent sense – as part of a fresh start for British migration policy (coinciding with the introduction of compulsory ID cards for foreigners) will help to defuse this ‘risk’ (if indeed it is genuine – other evidence suggests that the numbers are largely regulated by the nature of the labour market). In passing I am reminded that the precedent for ID cards for all French citizens was also set by the introduction of compulsory cards for foreigners, back in the 1880s (although of course in the UK we’ve known ID cards are on the way for a while now).
It will be particularly interesting to see how this plays out at European level (not to mention bilaterally); whilst the ippr is busy lobbying Jacqui Smith, Sarkozy has given Hortefeux the task of developing a European pact outlawing such measures…
