Blog

Blogs by Don Flynn

Ending rights, supporting rights - What’s best for the future of immigration policy?
Don Flynn May 9, 2013 1 Comment(s)
The coalition government wants less rights and less migration. Employers hint at less rights but want more migration. And others, including the European Commission, say rights are just what is needed to encourage people to migrate in security. Confused? You need not be....

Just one day after the government sets out its proposals to continue to bear down on immigration in the Queen’s speech the European Commission comes up  with a set of proposals which are intended to pull policy in another direction altogether.
Broken borders or bankrupt policy?
Don Flynn May 7, 2013 8 Comment(s)
The populist surge of UKIP is encouraging the belief that migration across borders can be brought under control by an act of steely determination on the part of government. This is a big mistake. "Effective management" of migration will remain an impossible dream until we face up to the reality of what is really driving the movement of people.

Heathrow T5 - queues

Why have successive British governments, apparently, made such a hash at administering immigration control policy?

The word ‘apparently’ is important because of the difficulty in knowing by what standards we are measuring the success. The high level of discontent which shows up in public opinion surveys, with 70% of respondents regularly expressing dismay at the state of border controls, suggest that all is in disarray and we are truly living in a country with ‘broken borders.’
Migration does not provide a reason to cut social welfare benefits – but it does explain why we should all work together for decent jobs
Don Flynn April 15, 2013 3 Comment(s)
We are told that welfare benefits need to be cut in order to push natives into the sort of jobs migrants are now doing. This dangerous logic will impoverish even more people, and there IS an alternative.

Migrants seem to be so deeply implicated in all the problems of the welfare state that it seems surprising that no one has yet seen fit to blame them for the new ceiling on total amount of cash benefits that people can receive which is being rolled out from today. 
Immigration checks: The wider damage done to communities in the UK means that we should dig our heels in and resist
Don Flynn April 7, 2013 8 Comment(s)
Herold Newell’s refusal to be cowed by workplace identity checks ought to be applauded by anyone concerned with the rights of workers. If we give in to the culture of suspicion it is not just immigrants who will suffer, but far wider groups of employees and the users of public services.

There is a sobering story in this week’s on-line edition of The Voice, a paper which reports news from the vantage point of Britain’s black community. It concerns Herold Newell, a lorry driver formerly in the employment of the ASDA supermarket chain. 
Populism – The resurgence of democracy or threat to the rights of migrants?
Don Flynn April 2, 2013 4 Comment(s)
The think-tank community has been thinking hard about populism in recent times, and usually coming to some very gloomy conclusions about what it might mean for liberal democracy. What should supporters of the rights of migrants make of it?

It’s one of the hottest topics for discussion amongst those who care about this sort of stuff – this weird thing we are calling populism, with people asking what it is and the meaning of its apparent rise in the political systems of the UK and other European countries at this point in time.

If you have a keen interest in anything to do with immigration policy – particularly from the standpoint of wanting to defend the rights of migrants – the rise of populism is supposed to be a wholly bad thing. The example of UKIP is held out as the only direction in which populism can lead – directly towards xenophobic and anti-immigration standpoints.