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How should the labour movement and the left talk about immigration?
The left must avoid shouting ‘racist’ and explain that the socialist alternative would benefit all
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. Photo: Danny Lawson/PA Wire
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REFORM UK, or rather its endlessly slippery leader Nigel Farage, cast immigration in apocalyptic terms, as if migration to these shores is uncontrolled and, as a subset of this narrative, that arrivals by small boats are its characteristic form and one that represents an existential threat to our borders.
Two facts allow us to see this approach, which is replicated in the practice, if not the rhetoric of the parties of government, is false.
First, small boat arrivals, who, if bona fide refugees, are legally given refuge, comprise a minor part of the total, and second, the largest number of migrants arriving do so are licensed by the government at the bidding of employers. This may account for the difficulty the government has in taking on the people-traffickers. A safe route for refugees would put them out of business and, in fact, the government, in collusion with employers, are people-traffickers themselves.
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