British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was to address public concern over immigration in a speech yesterday, acknowledging that many people fear foreign workers are taking their jobs and putting strains on local housing. Steep rises in immigration over the past decade and a recession-led climb in unemployment have boosted support for the far right and fueled charges Brown’s Labour government has lost control of the UK’s borders.
The issue is set to be a factor in a general election to be held by June next year, with the opposition Conservatives pledging they would impose a cap on immigration from outside the EU.
Labour ministers have long hailed immigration as benefiting the economy. They have been accused, however, of ignoring the worries of poorer families, who blame migrant workers for their problems in deprived areas where jobs and social housing are scarce.
Those concerns have seen a rise in support for the anti-immigration British National Party, which has scored gains in local council polls and won two seats in June’s European Parliament elections.
Brown was to say that immigration is neither an issue for fringe parties nor a taboo subject.
“I have never agreed with the lazy elitism that dismisses immigration as an issue, or portrays anyone who has concerns about immigration as a racist,” he will say according to extracts released in advance. “People worry about whether immigration will undermine their wages and the job prospects of their children. They worry about whether their grown-up children will be able to get housing anywhere near them.”
He was also to note, however, that the arrival of overseas workers has been welcome for many.
“If the main effect of immigration on your life is to make it easier to find a plumber, or when you see doctors and nurses from overseas in your local hospital, you are likely to think more about the benefits of migration than the possible costs,” he said.
Brown was to defend his government’s policy of “managed migration” through a points-based system introduced last year that restricts visas for non-EU nationals to a limited range of professions.
He was to hint at a tightening of these restrictions as the recession eases.
“As growth returns, I want to see rising levels of skills, wages and employment among resident workers, rather than employers having to resort to recruiting people from abroad,” he was to say.
The number of non-EU nationals working in the UK has doubled since Labour came to power in 1997, while migration from eastern Europe has far exceeded the government’s initial estimates since controls were eased in 2004.
Although the UK has tightened controls on workers from outside the EU, it has little power to restrict migration from within the 27-nation bloc.
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