Politics of fear

WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE

According to the United Nations Department of Economics and Social Affairs, there are over 232 million international migrants in the world, the most in recorded history. Europe remains the most popular destination with 72 million people arriving. When combined with globalisation and transnationalism, it has become nearly impossible to limit migration. Despite mounting stringent regulations, migrants will come either legally or illegally .

Britain is in a state of anti-immigration fever, Romaphobia and benefit-scrounging hysteria. Anti-migrant rhetoric is based on myth rather than fact. A recent study commissioned by the European Commission disproved the benefit tourism theory. Researchers found that not only did few migrants report engaging in benefit tourism, the number of jobless EU migrants claiming benefits was negligible at less than 5 percent in most countries surveyed. Most new arrivals came for work or join family. There has been a recent rise of right wing political parties around Europe that foster a hostile environment for migrants of all backgrounds by peddling a type of populist nationalism that creates an us versus them.

  Duncan Smith told the Daily Mail that those who make benefits their "lifestyle choice" face a crackdown with "no hiding place", to be sent to "full-time mandatory attendance centres" to spend 35 hours a week applying for jobs. The assumption by the Tories is that if they won't do jobs that Romanians take, they must have their benefits sanctioned until they have no choice, a reminder of our high unemployment, low pay, weak labour laws and slum housing epidemic. Benefits distort the market – if the market rate is whatever cheating employers can get away with. The Labour Party policy is to enforce decent pay and conditions so that once British people with families could afford to take those low-paid jobs, employers would lose any incentive to recruit cheap workers abroad by undercutting decent pay with imported near-slave labour. Yet their own history in government has always been to appease employers with lax regulation.

A Home Office report last July on conditions for immigrants found widespread "poor quality, overcrowded accommodation, inflated rents … exploitation by unscrupulous landlords and a growing number of 'beds in sheds'". Half of councils report problems with private landlords and migrant workers, some sleeping in farm buildings, with fire officers warning about dangerous overcrowding.

Inspection of both the minimum wage and rogue landlords is dismally weak. Councils, hit hard by cuts, fail to prosecute landlords. The minimum wage is barely enforced: officially, the ONS finds 299,000 jobs paid illegally less than the minimum wage, while the Low Pay Commission warns that sectors with most migrant workers have little enforcement. Only two people have been prosecuted over minimum pay in three years; 15 dairy farmers guilty of trafficking labour were fined just £300. HMRC, its budget cut by a quarter, has halved inspections but the government says there's no problem: "Workers affected should report the matter to the pay and work rights helpline and HMRC will investigate." What expert knowledge and what bravery would a migrant worker need to do that?  In law, immigration minister Mark Harper told the Commons, only £34.37 a week can be deducted for accommodation – but who's inspecting?

 The more politicians pander to prejudice, uncertainty and anger and the more politicians resort to ill-thought out panic measures such as capping access to NHS services and other benefits, the more voters will worry about the scale of the problem of migration - and then more likely the capitalist parties will turn to even more hard-line policies to capture votes.

Adapted and added to from here