Boris Johnson reiterates support for earned citizenship for irregular migrants

Last night, at a City Hall reception to celebrate the 200th anniversary of  the independence struggles in Latin America, Mayor Boris Johnson reiterated his support for a pathway into legality for irregular migrants. Boris has not shied away from the issue and I have heard him pledge his support for a regularisation on at least two more public occasions in the past year (at the launch of the mayor’s refugee integration strategy last December and at the Integrating Cities conference in February).

Last night he stated that he continued to support a regularisation despite opposition from the Conservative party during the last election.

Yet, Boris seems to come back to his support for a regularisation mostly at events with a predominantly migrant audience. It has been more than a year since the publication of the LSE report commissioned by the Mayor on the economic impact for London of a regularisation and not much progress has been made in gaining support in Westminster for a regularisation.

Irregular migrants living in legal limbo is an issue that especially affects London. After all, the LSE report estimated that two thirds of irregular migrants live in the capital. Having a population of over half a million living excluded from many public services and vulnerable to exploitation and destitution is not good news for local governments. It is clear that Boris would prefer to have them working legally and contributing to the city’s economy.

But at times there seems to be less impetus on pushing the regularisation agenda at a high level than other issues where London’s interests are at play, such as infrastructure and the future of the financial sector. Clearly this is not a popular agenda and at the present time it would be naive to expect an elected politician to put their full weight behind it. In this sense, I think that it is valuable that Boris continues to express his support for a regularisation, even when one would hope for him to put it on the table in more influential arenas where there is less support for it.