Austen Ivereigh, campaign policy director (on the left), goes head-to-head with the immigration minister Phil Woolas (above) live on BBC World Service from Trafalgar Square. And, as if arranged by angels, the BBC’s Madrid correspondent explains how well regularisation worked in Spain. Well worth a listen (only available for a few days) at
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Thanks for the link. I suppose it was a very good idea to have a 3-way conversation between Mr Ivereigh, Mr Woolas and the Spanish correspondent. What I think the immigration minister missed again was the fact that this campaign is not asking for a an amnesty straight away. He argued about amnesties in the past(in other countries) and their consequences.But those were pure amnesties.Those amnesties were not combined with immigration reform(such as enforcing borders controls,revising the asylum system etc) and they were applied to people who had been in that country for an average of 2-3 years. The difference of this campaign is to offer a path to citizenship so that people have to earn it rather than just being given. It also applies to people who have been here 6+ years and in the same time it requests better immigration and border system. So there's no reason to suggest it has a "Pull Factor" as there won't be many people who are ready to put their lives on complete hold(for nearly a decade) and risk so many many values in order to be given a path which itself takes a while to conclude.
ReplyDeleteI hope Mr Woolas (and authorities concerned) look at the human side of it and think about the lives of individuals whose only fault is being born outside the developed countries.
Thank you