Scapegoating

There is no evidence that new arrivals in the UK are able to jump council housing queues, an Equality and Human Rights Commission report says. The prime minister told MPs he wants to allow councils in England to give additional preference to locals over migrant workers , pandering to prejudice .

After five years, when many immigrants are able to get residency and become entitled to government help, one in six live in social housing - exactly the same proportion as those who were born in Britain. 64% of people who arrived in the UK within the last five years live in private rented accommodation.

EHRC chairman Trevor Phillips blamed a "failure of social housing supply" for concerns that migrants jumped queues. "Much of the public concern about the impact of migration on social housing has, at its heart, the failure of social housing supply to meet the demands of the population. The poorer the area, the longer the waiting lists, therefore the greater the tension."

Mr Phillips said the government and social housing providers needed to work together to address the issues that resulted in perceptions about immigrants benefitting unfairly.

Ruth Davison, director of the National Housing Federation, which represents housing associations, said just 4% of housing association properties were let to non-UK residents last year.

But we know that it is easier to find sections of the population to blame for the problems of capitalism than in solving them . Labour and the rest have a long history of seeking out scapegoats for the faults of the system and their own incapability of redressing them . The Labour Party wants to harvest all votes they can, come what may but you don't win friends and supporters by disagreeing with people and likewise you don't change their minds by agreeing with them. When capitalism fails to deliver, when despondency and shattered hopes arise from the stench of the failed promises and expectations that litter the political landscape, is it any wonder that workers fall for the scapegoating lies . It's a matter of record that those who are in possession of little are easily frightened by the threat of some other coming to take it away – hence all the medieval tales of færies and witches and gypsies trying to steal children from impoverished peasants. The appearance of homes going to these “foreigners” whilst their “own” go without reinforces the illusion that migration causes the housing . However, a government so minded could choose to argue against these illusions, and pour resources into propaganda to that end [ which EHRC demand ]. That they choose not to indicates another reason – that governments rely upon apparent homogeneity of culture and population to secure support for their actions and policies. How else, otherwise, to spread the message that “we are all in this together” if the “we” cannot communicate in the same language, with the same set of meanings and values? The growth of capitalism has occurred alongside the growth of the culturally homogenous state – usually through forced population migrations – wherein the owners and rulers of a land could pretend to some sort of common identity with the ruled. So far as socialists are concerned, this attempt to try and make a common appearance of an interest with our exploiters is like a burglar playing on their support for the same football team as their victim. It does not change the relationship one iota. We see the harm that is done by national boundaries, that prevent workers from moving to be with whom they want to be with; prevent them from sharing their skills and their knowledge as they see fit; prevent them from seeing their common cause.

The problems we face , such as inadequate housing, are not caused by workers from other parts of the world migrating to this part, but by the capitalist system of class ownership and production for profit instead of the common ownership and production geared to satisfying people's needs which will be the case in socialism. We understand that the thing which makes workers leave behind their communities, and go to a place where their language is not spoken, is the wages system itself . This underlies the need for us to recognise our identical position with regards to the wages system, and work together, as workers across the world, across boundaries, to create a commonly owned planet where all can live in security and all live in decent homes .