The much hyped speech on immigration by David Cameron. Cameron wants only the best and the brightest. Only those with genuine talents (and large bank statements) that match the UK national interest will be allowed in – ‘they deserve the red carpets’, he says. Will the Labour Party only mount an immanent critique on the proposals accepting implicintly its rightist policy goals? It seems to me that there is clearly a deficit of imagination in the so-called progressive political front and also scholarly research on migration, mostly reactive and policy-driven, doesn’t seem to be able to put forward different perspectives, ask different questions and challange the embedded nationalism (also methodological) that underpins its agenda.
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Don’t expect the Labour party to come out too vehemently against these kinds of policy; given the unfortunately commonplace anti-immigration sentiment amongst those of all socio-economic classes in this country – exacerbated since the recession, – any party seen to advocate anything even vaguely approaching an open-door policy would be shooting itself in the foot at the polling booth. Particularly considering Mr Miliband still seems to be struggling to capture much public interest, I can’t imagine him taking such a risk – in the process upsetting what is, presumably, a not insignificant section of the electorate – in forwarding a progressive-minded immigration policy, though such a policy would clearly be of great benefit.
For better prospects, one would have to hope that a) the current government’s actions will leave them so discredited in the eyes of the electorate that Labour will be brave enough to seize the initiative, content that they will still get votes from disillusioned former Tories, irrespective of how (un)popular their actual policies are; and/or b) the Lib-Dems, hoping to regain the support amongst students and other progressives that they have lost since the tuition fees debacle, adopt a radically different approach from the Tories, which may be effective in preventing such policies from being passed. I’m not holding my breath, though…