Immigration Reform

This looks entirely reasonable to me:

The Strangers Into Citizens campaign, which attracted
thousands of supporters to Trafalgar Square, proposes that migrants who
have been in Britain for more than four years should be given a two
year work permit without access to benefits.

Then,
at the end of the two years, they would be given indefinite leave to
remain, subject to criteria such as an English test, criminal checks
and employer references.

In fact it looks thoroughly sensible. I can’t see hat anyone’s ever going to get around to deporting 500,000 illegal immigrants so the solution has to be to regularise their position rather than leave them festering in the black economy.

This does give me pause for thought though:

Other high-profile figures joining the protest included Dr Tom Butler
the Anglican Bishop of Southwark, Labour deputy leadership contender
Jon Cruddas, Baroness Shirley Williams and Billy Bragg, the singer and
political activist.

Few are the matters upon which such people are correct so perhaps I’ve missed something.

In addition, they stressed that it would be a one-off amnesty for illegal workers already in this country.

Ah, that’s it. I’d be entirely happy if it was not a one off but rather made the basis of the whole immigration system. You can come here, for sure, but you get no benefits for x years while being allowed to work, then we’ll see about citizienship.

In

5 responses

  1. “I can’t see (t)hat anyone’s ever going to get around to deporting 500,000 illegal immigrants”
    Eisenhower deported 80,000, and a further 500,000-700,000 left of their own accord –
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wetback
    But of course we know better now.

  2. Mark Wadsworth Avatar
    Mark Wadsworth

    Re your last para, which political party, if any, would ever go for a commonsense answer like this?
    Tim adds: Mine and Chris Dillow’s?

  3. OK Tim, Normally youre spot on, but youve lost the plot on this one. How about an amnesty on burglars, car theives and fraudsters, they can all keep the gains of their illegal activity! In fact why bother having those pesky laws in the first place!
    If you think that the majority of these illegals cant be deported with the right political will, you seriously lose a lot of the respect you have built up over the last few years of blogging. Just because something is hard to do, doesnt make it not worth while
    Tim adds: Note the bit at the bottom….I think we should have different rules on immigration anyway.

  4. Mark Wadsworth Avatar
    Mark Wadsworth

    Tim, I thought you were UKIP? Chris Dillow (as much as like his blog) certainly isn’t UKIP.
    Tim adds: It’s the one line that I seriously disagree with most UKIPpers on. Given the rarefied political circles that I move in (ahem) I’ve even had the chance to explain, in person, to Nigel Farage why that’s the part of the policy set that is most likely to put off “libertarians”.

  5. “Given the rarefied political circles that I move in (ahem) I’ve even had the chance to explain, in person, to Nigel Farage why that’s the part of the policy set that is most likely to put off “libertarians”.
    1. Libertarianism is a philospohy born in Austria and most popular in the UK and USA – the two societies that have least need of it; and
    2. As far as I can gather, libertarian opinion on immigration is quite mixed –
    http://libertyunbound.com/archive/2006_10/cox-immigration.html

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