Editorial Comment:
In January 2010, when David Cameron announced his ambition to reduce net immigration to the “tens of thousands”, we cautioned that this was a hostage to fortune because we have no control over the numbers arriving from the EU. The experience of the past five years has justified that scepticism. Not only has immigration failed to decline, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that it is running at record levels.
Last year, 330,000 more people arrived in the UK to settle for a year or more than left these shores. Some of the 680,000 immigrants were British people coming home after working abroad. Others were students from China, bankers from America or IT specialists from India who will go home after a while. But most will stay. As a consequence, the population is growing faster than ever. The danger with promising what cannot be delivered is that public trust in politicians is undermined and policy mistakes are made. In a vain effort to achieve the unattainable, the Government has also kept out the people we need, while allowing in those that we don’t.
What is to be done? Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, wants a points-based system so that we can decide who we want in the country. There already is one for non-EU immigrants, who account for more than half the annual total. But imposing quotas or conditions of entry on EU nationals would require a change in the rules of membership that other member states have so far refused to countenance.
Perhaps that is about to change. Migration is not only an issue in Britain; arguably it has even greater political traction elsewhere in Europe. Angela Merkel is coming under increasing pressure in Germany over her government’s decision to invite in as many Syrian refugees as manage to make the journey. In France, the Front National has established itself as a powerful force on the back of popular worries about immigration. New members such as Hungary are struggling to cope with refugees trying to get into Europe.
When Mr Cameron began to contemplate renegotiating the UK’s relationship with Europe, few held out any hope that the EU’s commitment to free movement of people could change. That is no longer a given. The fact of the matter is that if we want control of our borders this matter must be resolved. There is no point pretending otherwise.