Boris Johnson and Priti Patel are immigrants too
UK will have to make sure foreigners do keep coming to help the economy and its ageing population
The children of immigrants aren’t happy about immigration. Donald Trump’s German-born grandfather came to America illegally as a teenager at the end of the 19th century, a fact he doesn’t mention when threatening to deport millions of undocumented migrants. Britain’s exit from the European Union’s free-movement area was championed by Boris Johnson, a US-born descendant of an Ottoman-Turkish minister. And the UK’s new stricter points-based immigration system, favouring specific skills, is to be run by Home Secretary Priti Patel, whose Ugandan-born parents arrived in the country with “nothing”.
While it’s tempting to paint them as hypocrites stoking up fear — Johnson was happy to champion immigrants when he was London mayor — things aren’t always so clear cut.
As frustrating as it may be for immigrants like myself who fall foul of or disagree with their policies, the likes of Johnson and Patel seem in sync with many of their fellow citizens. Leaving the EU and introducing new immigration curbs were two campaign pledges that won their party a parliamentary majority in December. One YouGov survey conducted this week found that 48 per cent of Brits believed the level of UK immigration was “too high,” versus 33 per cent who thought it “about right” and 6 per cent “too low”. Another found that 83 per cent of Brits believed migrants should have to learn the language of their host country. Yet UK attitudes to immigration are softer than in most EU nations: The politics of immigration, like the politics of trade, reflects a desire for more control from what the British writer David Goodhart calls the “Somewheres” — people with a rooted identity, a lack of geographic and social mobility and fewer professional qualifications. The city-hopping “Anywheres” are on the back foot.
The divide highlights the winners and losers of globalisation. Lower barriers to trade and immigration have been good for the economy overall, as work by economists such as Jonathan Portes shows, leading to cheaper, more efficiently produced goods and nearly full employment in the UK. But more competition has also created strains at the margins. A London-centric, low-wage, service dominated economy has fuelled national resentment and pushed politicians to “take back control” of immigration policy, whatever the cost.
With Brexit achieved, and free EU movement about to come to an end, it feels like a large part of the debate is over. After a decade-long surge in EU migration to the UK, migrants are starting to go home.But the debate over controlled immigration is only just beginning. Johnson and Patel’s Conservatives reckon their new system will bring down overall net migration, thereby calming voter anger.
Only by doling out more points to highly skilled, better paid workers who speak English, the thinking goes, will British workers avoid competing with low-wage EU rivals. Yet at the same time, the UK will have to make sure immigrants do keep coming to help the economy and its ageing population — through tax receipts, staffing the National Health Service, providing seasonal labour for agriculture, filling skills gaps, and more.
It’s hard to see how Johnson can square this circle. The points aren’t given generously “some 70 per cent of EU migrants wouldn’t make the cut.
That’s a huge gap to fill in less than a year for the UK’s 800,000 young people not in work currently. There are already exemptions brewing for several sectors that would barely function without migrant workers, including the NHS and farming.
This is only the beginning of a long process, however. For the first time in decades the UK is actually debating how to manage the entirety of its immigration policy, and the “Anywheres” should jump at the chance to take part. Hassan Damluji, author of The Responsible Globalist, argues convincingly that those who believe in immigration’s benefits and support the EU as a multilateral bloc should still respect the role of the nation as a pre-eminent actor, and stop always obsessing about the economy and belittling those who feel short-changed by mass migration.
For the first time in decades the UK is debating how to manage the entirety of its immigration policy, and the “Anywheres” should jump at the chance to take part.