Immigration: The ‘Taboo’ Word and the General Election 2010

During the General Election campaign, all three parties studiously tried to sideline immigration until Gordon Brown’s unfortunate encounter with Gillian Duffy which dragged the subject centre stage.

One thing certainly became clear: all the parties agreed on the need to control non-EEA immigration – but not how to do it. Even the new Coalition Government is still to agree a mechanism for implementing a cap.

In 2008 the five tier Points Based System (PBS), which replaced all other avenues of gaining entry to the UK, was introduced by the Labour Government in a bid to reduce the number of non-EEA migrants coming to work in the UK. Phil Woolas, the then Immigration Minister, stated that the PBS had resulted in a net reduction of 70,000 immigrants between 2007 and 2008. However, this is disputed by some think tanks that believe that the PBS has actually increased non-EEA immigration.

During the election debates Gordon Brown said the number of Tier 2 workers (those being sponsored by companies to work in the UK) had fallen from 81,000 in 2008 to 63,000 last year. However, three-quarters of applications under the PBS are from students and Home Office figures show an increase in the number of students entering the UK from 208,800 in 2008 to 273,600 last year. These figures reflect the change in legislation in 1997 by the new Labour Government to allow all overseas students to work 20 hours per week during term time and full time during vacation time. Labour’s policy on immigration altered over its 13 years in government, initially liberal but latterly attempting to be quite restrictive. Now the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition government has an opportunity to improve the immigration system.

Before May 6 the most controversial immigration policy came from the Liberal Democrats. Mr Clegg proposed an amnesty which would have allowed illegal immigrants who had been in the UK for 10 years or more to earn British Citizenship. He would also have introduced a regional PBS to ensure migrants could only work in areas of the UK that needed extra workers. At the time of writing this article, the Lib Dem’s proposals are clearly still on the table as the Coalition’s ‘Programme for Government’ contains rather general statements on future immigration policy. The one thing the Coalition has agreed on is the need to crack down on illegal immigration and people trafficking. We await developments with interest.