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The Mayor, Boris Johnson, wants a government amnesty for the estimated half million illegal immigrants now living and (mostly) working in London. At the present rate of arrest and repatriation, he points out, "it will take the authorities over 60 years to remove the current number of irregular migrants". During that time, tens of thousands more will arrive. It is like trying to drain the English Channel with a spoon.
The Mayor is right. Immigration brings out the worst in politicians, and especially in the present immigration minister, Phil Woolas. It is an invitation to pander to tabloid bigotry as a cover for doing nothing.
Immigration everywhere is a function of two factors, the security of a state and the prosperity of its economy. It was the boom in London over the past 10 years that led the present Government, in effect, to abandon attempts to control entry beyond the most rudimentary border checks.
As a result, according to an interim report from the LSE published this week, the total of illegals rose from 430,000 in 2001 to 725,000 in 2007, of which 518,000 are in London, two-thirds of the national total.
Nothing so defines a successful metropolis as the presence of migrant workers. For all its ethnic problems, Johannesburg has been a booming city, just as Moscow, for all its political bombast, is becoming an economic basket case, with a declining population and hostility to immigrant workers.
London's offer of a safe berth to the frightened and the poor of the world, from the Philippines to Somalia to Zimbabwe to Colombia, is not a subject of shame but of pride. There is no doubt that London has benefited greatly from the presence of a large pool of incoming labour, from domestic service to catering, the rag trade and even the building of the Olympic site, where a third of the workers are said to come from overseas.
London has been a magnet, mostly for adult males, for the best part of a quarter of a century. From the Vietnamese of Kingsland Road to the Sikhs of Southall, they honoured the maxim of the historian of immigration, WHHutt, that "émigré victims of religious intolerance in the 17th and 18th centuries found freedom and prosperity in the lands to which they fled, but the nations that welcomed them gained more than proportionately".
Immigrants of all sorts are good for London.
However, that is not the full burden of the Mayor's claim for an amnesty. Woolas wants to kick the illegals out to make himself popular. Johnson has no particular desire to make himself unpopular, nor are many of London's half million illegals likely to vote Tory. But there is money at stake here.
The relaxation of immigration controls by Labour after 1997 was designed in part to reduce the burden on the Home Office and relieve the chaos at ports of entry. Once in the country, illegal immigrants wander to the places of ethnic settlement, mostly in London, where they then enter a twilight world.
Despite their economic productivity they are unlikely to pay taxes. Informal government estimates are that some £1billion in income tax is being lost this way. Illegal immigrants may be no particular burden on government social benefits and operate outside the remit of employment legislation or the police. But they are a burden on local services, notably schools and clinics.
Because they are illegal and do not appear on population statistics, they pay no income tax and rarely any council tax. Local authorities must look after them and their families, while being unable to claim government support for this cost.
This makes no sense. As one of the authors of the LSE study, Tony Travers, points out, "In America, illegals at least pay local taxes. In Britain, almost all tax is central. These half million are unlikely to go home. If they could be taxed and the places where they settle got grants to reflect their numbers, much antagonism towards them could be removed."
Half a million Londoners are de facto compulsory tax-dodgers. Their labour may be in demand but they keep what they earn and are a potential, if not actual, drain on public resources.
The Mayor wants to an amnesty "to maximise the economic potential of these people so they can pay their way". He does not want to be Mayor "of two categories of people in our great city, one group who live normally and another who live in the shadows, unable to contribute fully to the rest of society".
Were there any realistic way of repatriating illegal immigrants from a place with the size and complexity of London, there might be a lively debate over how to do it - at a National Audit Office estimated cost of £8billion. There is not. The one lesson of post-war Europe is that, short of a new Iron Curtain, national frontiers are porous.
Most countries' immigration policies are sophisticated games of bluff. They involve stringent controls on formal migrants and asylum seekers, with tests of political persecution, evidence of wealth or skill or family connection. They require diplomats to issue blood-curdling publicity of the appalling conditions and terrible welcome that will greet the hapless Afghan or Sudanese should he pass muster with the border service.
None of this has any effect. A tidal wave of population surges west from the Urals and north from the Magreb, responding to despair and deprivation, a wave that authority appears unable to resist. It seeps through every border, stowed on ships, clinging to trucks and trains, bribing and cajoling its way to its preferred destination. The best that can be said for British immigration control is that only the fittest seem likely to survive the venture.
The market in migrants is like the market in guns and drugs. Governments pretend they can control it. They talk big and wave a big stick, but in truth they are impotent. Having made it as difficult as possible for illegal immigrants to get to Britain, ministers should have an eye to the taxpayer as well as common humanity, and let them stay and pay taxes.
The option is not whether immigrants will return home. It is whether they are to be admitted to London's melting pot or left in no man's land. The latter is in no one's interest.
Reader views (17)
Maya, tax paying dodger is an oxymoron. How can you be paying tax and dodging it at the same time?
What 'these people do the jobs that local people won't do' really means is 'these people do the jobs that no one should have to do for that amount of pay and under those conditions'. Of course local people will take advantage of a welfare system that pays them more to be out of work than in - if there were a system like the US, in which welfare payments are used to keep people in work, there wouldn't be 'scroungers'.
- Ken, Surrey
immigration is very sensitive matter andshould be dealt very carefully its like double edge weapon can be beneficial or very harmful if necessary steps not taken. i think we should allow people to work and pay taxes only on condition that they may not be eligible for benefits for good length of time which may reflect how much they are intrested doing jobs and if they pass the test should be welcomed.
- Ijaz, newcastle uk
First of all, I thank Mayor Boris Johnson to decide all the illegal immigrants granted a visa. So that they can live and work here in U.K. This is a huge help in this country because if they work they are not depending on the government financial.
Also they can pay their taxes more it depends how much they are earning.
Many thanks Mr. Boris Johnson May God bless you.
- F. Mussa, London, United Kingdom
We do not need any more people coming here it is too crowded already,all the best work has been taken abroad.
I do not know who's tiny mind started this all off,but could we stop as soon as possible,before the civil war starts.
- David., Chertsey.UK.
i dont agree with simon jenkins he has a voice thru a national newspaper millions of us dont. how many times have we heard that we need these immigrants you only have to go on the tube now to realise the number of people in london now our infastructure just cant cope anymore.i think if you ask most people they would say the same
- Misty, london england
Great idea! Have one every year.
- Ted, London
Some of these comments are sadly, very predicatable. Let us analyse the situation a little more clearly. The jobs that the immigrants are doing, are the jobs that our lazy layabout benefit spongers don't want to do. That is the only reason immigrants get this work. For many years now, there has been a successful integration of immigrants. Not all are here to take advantage of the tax payer. As for the life long benefit claimer, it is just as well we have this labour otherwise, god forbid, they might have to go and earn a pitiful wage. These scroungers are home bred, good old British people. I would suggest that they are the real tax paying dodgers.
- Maya, London
It is a complete fallacy that immigrants are only being employed in low paid jobs. I know for a fact that companies are advertising only in the likes of Eastern Europe for the likes of qualified surveyors or railway workers, both reasonably well paid jobs, and British workers are never seeing these jobs advertised and so can't even apply.
The companies advertise abroad because single Eastern Europeans etc can live in one shared house in the UK, pay one council tax between them, share the bills and send the vast majority of their money home to their families. This is why the likes of Polands economy has been booming. They are temporary economic migrants who are giving very little to Britain. Whether illegal or legal, the jobs are going to them because they can afford to and few of them want to stay long term or see any point.
British workers with families demand a higher wage because their cost of living is higher paying UK mortgages, all of the cost of their bills and that will be split between two parents at best. They cannot accept the lower paid jobs because of the low pay is too little to live on, not because they dont want to do the job. If our houses cost £30k and not £160k+ then maybe it would be possible. British workers cannot go and work abroad in the likes of Eastern Europe because the pay is too low.
The irony is, most of the constructions being built, take the olympic park for instance, wont be used by Britons in future as they wont be able to afford to.
- Paul, london
I suggest Simon Jenkins takes a walk ALONE day or night, preferably night around Wood Green, Bounds Green, New Cross, Elephant & Castle, Bow, Whitechapel, Poplar, and various other "enriched diverse" areas.
He may have a re-think afterwards.
- P I Staker, London, SW8
Legitimate immigrants who respect the law and British culture are good, illegal immigrants are not. By entering the country illegally they have displayed criminal intent and bad character. The fact is that the minute they become citizens the majority will become unemployed as they will not be able to find legitimate work and will end up claiming benefits.
This happened in Spain, where 76% of the 700,000 illegal immigrants involved in their last amnesty are now unemployed, add to that the millions of dependents that came over and are now placing further strains on their healthcare, transport and educational systems and the damage an amnesty causes is clear.
Plus, what would we do when those immigrants who have come here legally decide that they're not going to leave because those who entered illegally were given an amnesty. An amnesty would result in millions turning up or remaining illegally, demanding the right to stay.
It is naive and short sighted in the extreme to even consider an amnesty for illegal immigrants, every country that has held one has suffered and racial tensions have escalated as 100,000s more illegals have turned up on their doorstep.
The fact is the Conservatives have a coherent plan, to both secure our borders and remove illegal immigrants. The difference between them and Labour is that the Tories have the political will to do it and are prepared to assign the resources to achieve that end, instead of pandering to a liberal elite.
- John, Enfield London
What the author actually means is ‘immigration is good for people like me’. The white middle-class and ruling elite are the beneficiaries of mass immigration. It is they that employ their cheap labour and can afford to sample the ever-increasing ethnic restaurants. Yet, they can maintain a safe distance from the downside: the clamour for housing, education and public services, and the challenge to their identity and culture. Just ask the middle-class commentators championing immigration, why aren’t you sending your children to the local multi-ethnic dominated school?
- Nw5chav, London
Most people on this forum tend to look at immigration very emotionally. The simple FACT is illegal immigrants are always going to be here no matter what the government does. For every new initiative to make it harder for them, they will always come up with new ways to fight it. I know a couple of immigrants who have been here for over 20 years. Yes ,20 years!
Rounding them up is the easy bit. Once in detention, they will then claim for asylum which could take another year to resolve and thousands of tax payers money.
Its time for a common sense approach. Let us set emotions aside and deal with this logically.
- Simon, Glasgow
some people should wake up their r far 2 many immigrants in this country we have millions on the dole and homeless we need a proper peoples government lets get the immigrants out and the government out we should all stand 2gether and be heard what can they do to us all nothing
- Vikki Webster, lincolnshire uk
Seems to me we are more interested in money than in people.
- Sandy, Ealing, UK
The current laws for migrant workers in the UK are a knee-jerk reaction from a government that doesn’t know what it’s doing. Migrant workers are an important part of the economy as they fill the roles that local workers don’t want to do. These include unskilled manual labour and skilled, but low-paid work such as nursing.
It is practically impossible for a migrant worker to get legal work in the UK, and so most are left to work illegally for unscrupulous employers and pitiful wages.
We should encourage these people to work legally, pay taxes and national insurance and live a full life. Those who don’t want to pay their own way should, of course, be told to get lost.
We need a government that works for in the best needs of the country and not one that appears to be lost in the wilderness, following an inept leader.
- Mark Petter, Kiev, Ukraine
Rewarding people who have broken the law seems wrong to me. Illegal immigrants have said "I don't care about your British laws. I want to make money and I am staying in Britain". Those people should not be rewarded. And you should stop looking at immigration with rose coloured spectacles. The rate of immigration in the past 10 years has damaged British people's lives. It's not tabloid to say you don't like immigration. Illegal immigrants must know that they will be deported; not rewarded with a British passport.
- Anthony, London
a nation is nothing more than the culture and natural qualities of its citizens. as immigrants bring and in general keep their native cultures, immigration is diluting and gradually replacing Britain.
- Derek Carson, Alexandria, Virginia
