Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century
 
Revolutionary
Socialism in the
21st Century
Standing up to racism at Walthamstow, London 7 August 2024, photo courtesy of Steve Eason

Building Fortress Britain: Labour’s policies on immigration 

SJ Gerdes

Starmer’s Labour is doubling down on border security and restrictive migration policies. Amid rising hostility to migrants, the left must build solidarity across the whole working class.

Pledges, missions, milestones: among the many re-brands that Keir Starmer’s leadership of the Labour Party, and now the country, has undergone, one thing remains steadfast: a commitment to building ‘strong foundations’ for Britain, which means ‘secure borders’. Border security, the Labour manifesto argues, is essential to ensure migration is ‘managed’ and ‘controlled’, which will lead to more fairness in the system, eliminate ‘people smuggling gangs’ and reduce cost to the taxpayer. 

Labour cancelled the Tories’ Rwanda scheme, not for principled reasons, but on the basis of cost. In its place, Labour pledges to tackle the ‘asylum backlog’ and swiftly remove those whose claims are unsuccessful. The government has also announced a new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill in the King’s Speech, which will establish a new ‘Border Security Command’ with ‘counter-terrorism’ powers. This sits alongside increased surveillance and intelligence sharing along European migration routes, in collaboration with international law enforcement. 

Since taking office, Starmer has sought inspiration from Italy’s far-right prime minister Georgia Meloni on striking deportation deals. During a recent visit to Iraq, home secretary Yvette Cooper signed an agreement pledging funding to train local law enforcement and government, and to cooperate on a new task force to disrupt immigration routes. In return, the Iraqi government will work with the British government to speed up deportations of their citizens whose asylum applications were unsuccessful. Labour is expected to strike more deals of this nature with other countries whose nationals make up a significant number of small boat crossings.

While Channel crossings dominated the pre-election discourse, asylum policies are not the only battleground in the immigration policy space. Labour is also committed to reducing immigration numbers overall, including the numbers of people who come here to work. In response to the Office of National Statistics’s most recent immigration figures, Keir Starmer announced a new White Paper that will set out plans to reduce migration. Linked to the Migration Advisory Committee’s review of the shortage occupation list and skilled migration visas, Starmer said that the new White Paper will explore how to reform the ‘points-based’ immigration system, and set new expectations for employers to invest in training of the ‘domestic’ workforce if they are hiring workers through skilled worker visas or are reliant on those accessing the labour market via the shortage occupational routes. 

Starmer’s bizarre speech announcing the White Paper also accused his Tory predecessors of pursuing ‘open borders’ policies after Brexit. The Tories ended freedom of movement after Britain left the EU, which has resulted in a decline of immigration from EU countries. However this has not brought down immigration numbers overall, which Starmer claims is due to the fact that the economy is ‘hopelessly reliant’ on migrant workers. Starmer also linked this ‘reliance’ on migrant workers to the number of British people who are out of work on long-term sickness benefits. Labour is also seeking to reform the benefit system, aiming to push more disabled and chronically ill people back into work by threatening changes to who can access vital benefits.

This makes linking the fight for migrant workers rights with the fight for disabled people’s rights essential as these measures are connected by the political desire to reduce the numbers of migrant workers, and therefore the need to push any available British citizen into the workforce instead. 

The Labour government is not pretending that it can reduce labour migration to zero and knows that migrant workers will continue to participate in the labour market. Many of these workers, especially in high risk sectors such as domestic work and agriculture, remain in precarious situations, and Labour’s punitive approach does not centre their rights. There is extensive evidence that restrictive visa conditions and a lack of rights (such as access to public funds, the ability to change employers or switch to different visa routes) are linked to exploitation. None of these issues are likely to be addressed meaningfully by Labour’s current plans. Rather than ensuring that vulnerable workers can access support, Labour is proudly boasting about increased workplace raids and deportations. According to Home Office figures, immigration raids on workplaces have increased by 34 per cent, and arrests in connection to raids by 25 per cent, since Labour took office in July 2024. 

Immigration has long been a contentious topic both in mainstream political and media discourse, but also among the left. Especially where socialists participate in electoral projects, the risk of triangulation on immigration is high, given the worry it might ‘turn off’ voters if one comes across as ‘too pro migration’ or ‘open borders’. As the border regime’s hold over people’s lives continues to intensify, it is high time that triangulation is abandoned. Socialists must recommit themselves to a strong defense of the whole working class – regardless of their immigration status. Our bonds of solidarity must not be eroded by the arbitrary categories that the state assigns to different workers. In practice, this must mean that trade unionists have to stand steadfast in their support of migrant workers, and a re-commitment to political activity that refuses complicity with the border regime: against raids, against reporting, against deportation. 

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