Is this the most inane law of all time? Cameron promises to make illegal immigration illegal
Even by the usual standards of anti-immigration rhetoric, David Cameron's announcement that he would make illegal immigration extra-illegal was remarkably idiotic.
The press release to go with the announcement said there would be a new offence of 'illegal working'. Asked how this made any sense on the Today programme this morning, home secretary Theresa May admitted it was predominantly to discourage undocumented immigrants trying to find work – implying it will rarely be actually used. But even on this level the law is bizarre. The discouragement – or the realisation that "illegal working doesn't pay" – would only be pertinent when you were caught by police.
But undocumented immigrants already do not want to be caught by police, because it would mean being deported. So what is the discouragement exactly? That people who do not want to get caught by police will now be even keener not to be caught by police?
There certainly won't be much financial discouragement. Most undocumented immigrants are paid pittance, exploited by unscrupulous employers who are aware of their vulnerability. They survive day-to-day, week-to-week. The state will seize pennies and pretend it's gold.
Except of course they won't. There's no task force for this, no extra funding for it. This isn't a serious proposition. It's theatre.
To call this idea intellectually inadequate is to give it more credit than it deserves. What this really is, at heart, is the old tactic of legislation as press release.
Cameron needed something to neutralise the news impact of today's official numbers, which showed immigration had gone up from 298,000 to 318,000. The government has failed to get immigration down to the tens of thousands – a silly promise which was not in Cameron's power to keep but which he nevertheless made the mistake of repeating.
Crowded out? Critics of immigration say Britain cannot handle the influx.
Today's figures show, entirely predictably, that as Britain's economy performs strongly, people want to come here. When its economy performs less well, fewer will want to come. Immigration is not some conspiracy to wipe out the personality of good old England. It is about supply and demand.
At least the illegal working law is merely silly. Some of the other ideas in Cameron's package are actively harmful. There are plans to make all banks check accounts against details of people thought to be in the UK illegally – thereby expanding the surveillance requirements from the Immigration Act, which turned estate agents, banks and doctors into de-facto Home Office staff. This poisonous response will turn us all into agents of the state in order to solve a problem which does not exist.
Deport-first-appeal-later will be expanded to "stop people frustrating the system". In this context, that translates as 'having access to justice'. As most immigration lawyers will tell you, once their clients are out the country, their chances of a fair hearing dwindle significantly. Deport-first-appeal-later is itself an abuse of the system. It deprives people of justice when faced with unfair immigration decisions – and as anyone who has come into contact with the immigration system will know, it is a pit of incompetence and thoughtlessness, with people's ability to live in their home or with their family regularly put at risk by inadequate decisions made by bureaucrats.
But buried deep in the document, uncommented on, is a nugget which contains the solution to our debate over immigration.
"And we're going to get far better at training our own people to fill these gaps from overseas."
Here is the boring old truth to a demand and supply problem. In so far as you can, tailor supply to what is being demanded. People blame immigrants for an economy with no place for them. It is not surprising that areas reliant on declining industries are particularly open to this message. The solution is not the negative one of pulling up the drawbridge. It is a positive one of equipping people with the skills to compete. But that is a long-term plan which demands investment. It is so much harder than scrawling down a press release in crayon and pretending it is legislation.
Legislation keeps being proposed on immigration – but is often little better than a press release.
We can’t get there until we treat immigration honestly. These fictional pieces of legislation are not coming out of nowhere. They are a response to fictional newspaper coverage.
Take the Bank of England story earlier this week. Governor Mark Carney said having more older workers, more people doing longer hours, and more people in the economy was containing wage growth. The solution was to increase productivity.
How was this reported? The Daily Mail said he'd made an "explosive intervention" in the immigration debate by saying "foreign workers drag down UK wages". The Telegraph took the same line. He was quoted selectively and his position completely misrepresented.
On the Today programme Carney was asked if migration dampened wages. "I would really dampen down that explanation," he said. Whereas additional older workers and extra work via more hours over the last two years added up to an equivalent of 500,000 more workers, the increase in net migration over that period was 50,000.
The press twists all events – all comments – into proof of its anti-immigration argument. Reality no longer matters. Everything must service the anti-immigrant message. The government then responds with legislation which also has no anchor in reality.
The argument about productivity got lost in a fuzz of fictional nonsense. Migrant workers who come to this country are frequently overqualified for the jobs they take. They come with educational and vocational standards which are usually beyond the role they are employed in. Maximising their productivity in the economy improves everyone's living standards.
We can use those abilities to our common benefit while developing and encouraging the skills of our domestic workforce. But that requires a commitment to reality and positive long-term planning, rather than the damaging fiction we were treated to today.
