Crowd in London. Photo: Johnny Greig

Give EU migrants already here an assurance they can stay

03 Jul 2016, by Owen Tudor in Labour market

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady has co-signed a letter in the Sunday Telegraph today building on the joint statement that she made with CBI Director-General Carolyn Fairbairn last week, calling on the government to guarantee that EU migrants already in the UK can stay no matter what arrangement is made after the UK leaves the EU.

This is vitally important, for four reasons:

People who have moved to the UK, and often settled here, starting families, putting down roots, are really worried that they will be turfed out when we leave the European Union. They are already making a contribution to Britain’s economy and society, and we owe it to them to make sure they know what their future holds. It would send a powerful message to racists emboldened by the referendum result that their poisonous behaviour still has no place in modern Britain. That’s one reason why the TUC is so keen to do this in partnership with others across the political spectrum: it’s important to stress that, whatever political position you hold, racism and picking on people because of their skin colour, language or religion is utterly unacceptable. It’s also important to the UK economy and public services like the NHS that people we currently depend on don’t feel unwelcome, or start thinking of other places to go. As even some leadership contenders in the Tory Party are realising, Britain needs immigration to be a successful, dynamic economy and a sustainable, inclusive society. And finally, as the letter to the Telegraph says, if we make clear that EU migrants in the UK are welcome to stay, that strengthens our hand in defending the same right for Brits abroad.

The breadth of opinion represented by the signatories of the Sunday Telegraph letter (Labour & Conservative, business and unions, leavers and remainers) is important both to give comfort to EU migrants and also make it clear that this is a shared commitment. We’d hope that unions and employers at company level could share that call with local MPs. And that’s also why we’re asking everyone standing for the Tory leadership

“…to make an unequivocal statement that EU migrants currently living in the UK are welcome here, and that changes would apply only to new migrants. A clear commitment to protect the status of EU migrants was made by the official Vote Leave campaign – and it must be honoured.”

Nothing less will be enough: David Cameron’s suggestion that there will be “no immediate changes” is hardly reassuring if you’ve moved here from abroad, got a job, had kids who are themselves unequivocally British, and are now looking over your shoulder, worried about how long you can stay.

But we can also do more. We’d hope that unions could approach the employers they work with to get their support for such a statement, and also to support the measures called for in Frances O’Grady’s statement with Carolyn Fairbairn, which also talked about a more progressive approach to managing migration:

“We need to do more. A smart government would reintroduce the migration impact fund to get cash to areas with high pressure on public services in the face of government cuts.

“Stronger employment rules and enforcement could also help stop bad employers driving down pay and conditions in some sectors, and ensure that migrant workers are not exploited.”

We shouldn’t be worried about talking about managing migration so it’s better for Britain, by which we mean Britain’s people. As trade unionists, we wouldn’t support unregulated free markets, so migration should be just the same.