Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Joined Up Policies.

The Liberal Democrats have finally figured out that immigration is not a monolithic phenomenon and there are some forms of immigration that should be made easier and some that should not. There remains a tiny problem though:
Britain should offer a ``selective'' amnesty for some of the 600,000 immigrants living illegally in the country, said Nick Clegg, a member of Parliament who speaks on domestic policy for the opposition Liberal Democrat Party.

People who have lived in the U.K. for 10 years and can prove a ``commitment'' to the U.K. should earn the right to a two-year working visa and a path to citizenship, Clegg said. They would have to pass a language test, prove family ties and have no criminal conviction.

In the same speech Clegg added a new policy:

He also proposed an increase in fees paid by employers for work permits for overseas employees.

``If employers are having to look outside the U.K., then it's clear we have a problem with training our own workers here at home,'' Clegg said. ``So we propose an increase in fees paid by employers for work permits. We can use the revenue to train U.K. workers for other jobs.''

So they want to make it harder to recruit highly skilled individuals from abroad whilst simultaneously removing any obstacle to law breakers who have demonstrated a complete disregard for out laws.

5 comments:

Joe Otten said...

Nope, the opportunity to earn citizenship wouldn't be available to anybody with a criminal record.

Ross said...

If they are illegal immigrants, and obviously legal ones don't need an amnesty, then they are law breakers and this is true regardless of whether they have a criminal record or not.

Joe Otten said...

Typically we are talking about overstayers here - arrived legally, but didn't leave when they should have done. And the government currently doesn't deport overstayers after 10 years anyway. What the policy does is give them a chance to work and become citizens rather than remaining a permanent underclass.

Do you really want to deport 500,000 people at a cost of £11,000 each when they could work and pay taxes instead? (I presume I don't need to disabuse you of the lump of labour fallacy.)

The other half of this policy - mostly unreported - is better border controls, and exit controls, which would make overstayers easier to find in the future.

DJ said...

JO, the only reason it costs so much to deport illegals is because of all the stupid leftist laws in the first place. If illegals were treated the same way as any other type of fraudster, this wouldn't be a problem.

Besides, most folks on the right don't want a deportation-only strategy. If employers who hired illegals were punished properly, most illegals would self-deport, but, apparently, the left doesn't want action taken against rich people who break the law in the pursuit of higher profits.

JuliaM said...

"Typically we are talking about overstayers here - arrived legally, but didn't leave when they should have done."

Hence, they are indeed lawbreakers, as Ross F points out.

"Do you really want to deport 500,000 people.."

Yes, if the cost of £11k each would be a one off payment. It would be worth it.