Arab revolts raise new immigration fears in Europe Immigration is now big worry for teenagers Shamed Cumbrian boss who employed illegal workers to lose business profits British jobs for whom? India wants thousands of extra EU visas under trade deal Britain to grant 20,000 visas to Indian workers annually CURRY BOSS: MUSLIM DUTY TO HIRE ILLEGALS Immigration Under Labour – Chaos or Conspiracy? 22 February, 2011 Figures due out on Thursday will, for the first time, officially confirm that net foreign immigration under Labour exceeded three million. This is the context for a detailed indictment of the Labour Government’s record on immigration published today in Briefing Paper No 11.24. It forensically examines one of the most significant and far reaching changes ever imposed on the fabric of Britain - despite the wishes of the vast majority of its citizens. The document, ‘Immigration – Labour’s enduring legacy to Britain’ - from think-tank Migration Watch, has brought together the principal facts and figures resulting from the largest wave of immigration for nearly a thousand years. Migration Watch was one of the few voices consistently raised in opposition to mass immigration during the Blair and Brown years and was regularly vilified by Labour politicians and the immigration lobby. Now we find that, as the Labour supporting Institute of Public Policy Research recently put it; “It is no exaggeration to say that immigration under New Labour has changed the face of the country.” ‘We would agree, the sheer scale of what has occurred is changing Britain fundamentally and irrevocably and in ways the majority of the population did not ask for, were not consulted about and did not wish to see,’ said Migration Watch chairman, Sir Andrew Green. ‘Urgent action is needed to place firm limits on any further immigration’ The report shows that in the years before Blair’s government net immigration was running at around 50,000 a year, but in 1997 the floodgates were opened and numbers quadrupled with the result that over three million migrants came to Britain and stayed here plus, perhaps, a further one million who came and stayed illegally. At the same time nearly a million British citizens left the country. This is in sharp contrast to Labour’s 1997 election manifesto which declared that“Every country must have firm control over immigration and Britain is no exception.” ‘This has been a clear failure of democracy due in large part to the left’s deliberate tactic of stifling reasoned debate with accusations of racism,’ said Sir Andrew, ‘ In the years to come immigration will be seen as Labour’s great betrayal.’ He added that the raw statistics were difficult to envisage. ‘But when you consider that three million extra people on this island equates to the creation of three cities the size of Birmingham, seven the size of Manchester or 20 the size of Harrogate with all that that means for the pressure on our roads, railways, housing, infrastructure, the environment, schools, hospitals and the general quality of life it gives some idea of the scale of what Labour has bequeathed to us all.’ Some of the key headlines from the report are: Said Sir Andrew: ‘Immigration on a sensible scale has clear benefits but only if it is both properly controlled and limited in scale. It is still not entirely clear whether the outcome of the Labour years was a result of gross incompetence or some politically motivated desire to change the whole nature of our society. Policy might also have been influenced by the fact that many immigrants become Labour voters. ‘The present government will have to stick to their guns if they are to clear up the shambles they inherited and get a grip of developments that could otherwise fundamentally change the whole nature of our society.’ Note to Editors: 1 Mr Blair’s 690 page memoir has only one substantive page on immigration in which he describes his strategy for handling it at the 2005 election: “Because our position was sophisticated enough – a sort of ‘confess and avoid’, as the lawyers say – we won out.” (page 524). 2 The IPPR quote is from “Immigration under Labour”, November 2010, page 4. Secret Cable plan could double flow of economic migrants 20 February, 2011 Just as the Prime Minister is promising that "this year the government is determined to help deliver many thousands of new jobs", Vince Cable is secretly negotiating a deal that will admit tens of thousands of Indian workers to Britain. The deal is part of a Free Trade Agreement being negotiated between the EU and India which is expected to be signed this spring. India is insisting on access for Indian workers as a condition of a wider agreement that would reduce tariffs on European products and lift some restrictions on businesses bidding for public procurement contracts. The proposed deal will allow Indian companies, which have obtained a service contract in Britain, to send over their own employees to do the work. This would cut out any opportunity for British workers and would also allow Indian companies to undercut British firms employing British workers by using cheaper migrant workers from India. According to leaks from Brussels, the EU Commission is planning to offer India up to 40,000 work permits a year of which the Indians are demanding that the UK share should be 20,000. Negotiations are believed to be continuing between the Commission and the British government. As this is part of a trade agreement, Cable’s Business Department is in the lead. If the government cave in to Brussels the numbers admitted could double economic migration which the government have, after much debate, limited to 20,700 a year. These visas will be limited to 12 months in any 24 month period so that these workers are not here long enough to be officially classified as immigrants. There are even suggestions that "independent consultants" should be allowed to come in under the same scheme. Significantly, the scheme would include the IT sector where British workers are already feeling the effects of immigrant Indian workers. The government already allow, at Cable’s insistence, an unrestricted flow of workers transferred between international companies for up to 12 months provided that they are paid £24,000 a year. These new arrangements would add further to that flow but, in this case, the arrangements would also be effectively irreversible because they would become part of a trade agreement that falls within "community competence". The number of jobs in the economy is not fixed. Some new jobs might be created but this flow of cheap labour, however it is classified, is bound to affect the job prospects of British workers. Furthermore, with no exit checks there is no way to ensure the departure of these workers at the end of their contracts. Those who stayed on would add to the net migration that the government has committed to reduce to tens of thousands. Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch UK, said "The secrecy surrounding this deal has gone on long enough. Britain's 2.5 million unemployed have a right to know what is going on and to be told why the Prime Minister's pledges both to help create jobs and to cut back net immigration are being seriously undermined in this way. This scheme makes a nonsense of efforts to limit economic migration" Notes to Editors 1 The Prime Minister held a meeting on the 10 January with business leaders at which he said "This year the government is determined to help deliver many thousands of new jobs and I am delighted that the companies joining me today are part of that. Across a whole range of areas you are going to see the most pro-business, pro-growth, pro-jobs agenda ever unleashed by a government…by developing the right skills and jobs I am determined that the many not the few will share in the country's prosperity." 2 Further back ground can be found in Briefing Paper 4.13.
A selection of recent media reports
Description -- (BRUSSELS) - Europe reacted with dread and outrage...
EUbusiness.com (21-Feb-2011)
Teenagers are for the first time more worried about immigration...
London Evening Standard (21-Feb-2011)
A businessman who employed seven illegal immigrants at two of his Indian.
Times and Star (Staff Reporter) (21-Feb-2011)
Immigration isnt a topic much discussed nowadays, because its one where the Tories and Lib Dems dont agree. Thats a shame. Because theres an urgent problem to be fixed in the British labour market: that every time the economy grows, it sucks in immigrant workers. If this dysfunction continues, it will finish Cameron.
The Spectator (21-Feb-2011)
India is reported to be demanding thousands of extra visas for its workers under a multi-billion pound trade deal it is negotiating with the European Union (EU).
The Hindu (21-Feb-2011)
Britain is set to welcome 20,000 extra Indian workers annually as part of a secretive trade deal brokered by the European Union (EU), a media report...
Irish Sun (21-Feb-2011)
A RESTAURANT boss caught employing 35 illegal immigrants claimed he did.
Daily Star (Jerry Lawton, Chief Crime Correspondent) (21-Feb-2011)Press Releases
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
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