Starmer echoes the far-right rhetoric and promises to "take back control of the borders."

LondonLess than one year after coming to power, British Labour seems to have lost its way and is trying to get back on track by definitively abandoning progressive policies and adopting those of the far right. In short, this Monday the premier Keir Starmer implicitly pointed to foreigners as responsible for the vast majority of the country's ills during the presentation of the long-awaited white paper on immigration. give a concrete figure. Between June 2023 and 2024, it stood at 728,000 people, and the same previous period (2022-23) reached almost a million people. budgets and opts for the same demagogic drift of Nigel Farage's Reform Party, which ten days ago won the local elections in England, and threatens the hegemony of the large traditional formations. A drift and a rhetoric that many analysts identify with the riots last summer in different cities across the country, following the murder of three girls while participating in a summer recreation program in the north of the country.

Under the new rules, immigrants will have to live in the United Kingdom for a decade before being able to apply for citizenship, a change that will not affect people who make a "genuine and lasting contribution" to the economy or society, who will be able to obtain permanent settlement rights on an accelerated basis. In addition, all new arrivals through any of the established routes—family reunification, work, or study—will have to pass more rigorous English language tests, including dependents.

To present these reforms, Starmer, who had tirelessly defended holding a second Brexit referendum, has adopted, literally, the same message as in 2016. favored the break with the European Union. A way to campaign for Nigel Farage, who promotes clean immigration of zero people. Thus, in his appearance, the premier He has said it's about "regaining control of the borders." However, the reality is that since Brexit, the number of immigrants arriving legally has quadrupled, reaching the aforementioned record of almost one million.

The question Labour must now ask itself is whether it can stop Nigel Farage by adopting his same rhetoric while cutting social rights, such as energy subsidies for the less fortunate, as he did last winter. The Reform Party leader was quick to attack the reform. In a tweet, he said: "On the day of Keir Starmer's big backlash against the Reform Party, at 8am, there are already 250 young people crossing the Channel. How many of them are Iranian terrorists?" Once again, he has identified undocumented immigration with suspected criminals and equated cross-Channel refugees with those crossing the UK border legally.

"The Island of Foreigners"

Not content with spreading Brexit demagoguery, the Labour leader went so far as to say that the current immigration system "was almost designed to allow its abuse," and that without strengthening entry rules, the country risks becoming "an island of foreigners." Furthermore, in the introduction to the white paper, premier He also claims that mass immigration has caused "incalculable harm to public services and access to housing, and our economy has been distorted by perverse incentives to import labor rather than invest in British skills."

Experts and data, however, refute these claims. King's College professor Jonathan Portes claims that "the vast majority of immigrants contribute to the economy: they pay taxes, they pay university fees, they help growth, they help fund public services." "And we have quite a bit of evidence that, overall, the net economic impact of immigration is positive: migrants put in more than they take out," he said in an appearance on the BBC.

Meanwhile, Zarah Sultana, a suspended Labour MP and a vocal critic of the government, called Starmer's speech "fueling decades of racism and division, compounding anti-immigrant rhetoric that puts lives at risk." Nadia Whittome, a member of the left wing of the party, also denounced the tone of the speech and warned of the dangers of this policy. "The government's escalating anti-immigrant rhetoric is shameful and dangerous. Migrants are our neighbors, friends, and family. Suggesting that the country could become 'an island of foreigners' due to immigration echoes the fearmongering of the far right."

The Labour reform also provides for a ban on hiring foreign workers for the social care sector from the end of this year. Nursing homes will be prohibited from doing so, and in any case, will have to fill vacant places either with Britons or with foreigners already in the United Kingdom. This demand has already caused alarm among nursing home employers, who are unable to find staff in the country to meet their needs.

Foreigners are also threatened with expedited deportation if they commit minor offenses. Any offense committed by a foreign citizen in the United Kingdom will be reported to the Home Office, not just those that carry a prison sentence, as currently stipulated by the regulations. In practice, this opens the door for migrants to be expelled from the United Kingdom for less serious offenses, such as stealing food from supermarkets. Finally, a university degree will be required for skilled workers, a requirement that was abolished by Boris Johnson's government.