“(Starmer’s) words caused despair & fear for migrant communities… because his position legitimises racist views about racialised people (who already face discrimination, demonisation & scapegoating), causes division & encourages othering.”
By Zita Holbourne
We’ve seen the Labour Party pander to and shift to the right in relation to migration before, but Keir Starmer’s announcement and comments launching the government’s white paper on immigration constitutes a new low. If you did not know Keir Starmer was the leader of the Labour Party, you would be forgiven for thinking he was speaking on behalf of a right wing or worse political grouping.
In the white paper introduction, Starmer states that:
“if people want to come to Britain to start a new life, they must contribute, learn our language and integrate”- like migrant communities have not been doing this for decades.
His words caused despair and fear for migrant communities, including descendants of migrant parents and grandparents, because his position legitimises racist views about racialised people (who already face discrimination, demonisation and scapegoating), causes division and encourages othering.
The white paper proposes dependants of people migrating to the UK must demonstrate they speak English but we do not see British people, so called ‘ex- pats’ who emigrate to Spain and other European countries required to learn the language of the country they move to. In fact the opposite is often seen, and arrogant expectation that people living in other countries should speak English and indignation if they don’t know English.
It is proposed that migrants must demonstrate progression in their level of English for visas to be extended. But when we look at the standard of English taught in the British schooling system, actually the level of English language and grammar taught in other (Commonwealth and former Commonwealth) countries is far superior to that taught in the UK: so if British born people schooled in the UK are not required to demonstrate progression in English language (and this is not even supported in the education system), why are migrants placed under this scrutiny?
Settled status is to be granted to migrant parents whose children sadly die, losing a child is devastating. But what of parents torn from their children who are alive when deported, who will now be the victims of an even more vicious policy, undermining human rights and overriding the law by allowing Parliament and government to decide who has the right to family life and who doesn’t – introducing a new racist law to enable this.
As someone who campaigned to first expose and then to oppose what became commonly known as the Windrush Scandal, over many years, I have supported families in legal challenges and campaigns because they were threatened with being torn apart, with an abuse of the human rights of children, suddenly and brutally stripped of parents and guardians, who were detained and deported. I saw first-hand the devastating impacts on those children: impacts on their schooling and mental health, knock-on impacts on their standards of living, plunged into deep poverty because the parent or guardian left behind was unable to work as a result.
Starmer makes clear that this abuse of power and disregard for the rule of law is being proposed directly in response to the successful campaigns and legal challenges to protect the rights of children that have happened before.
Migrants will have to demonstrate a significant contribution to UK society and the economy to qualify sooner than ten years for citizenship. Ten years is a long time to live insecurely with the potential threat of deportation hanging over you.
It does not take into account the fact that Black and Brown people and other migrant workers face institutional racism in the labour market and at work with the knock-on impacts of precarious work, low pay and being blocked from promotion and progression.
Furthermore, the UK economy and society has been built off the backs of migrants to the UK for centuries: it has built its wealth through the enslavement of African people during the Transatlantic Slave Trade and through colonial rule.
The economy would collapse without migrant workers: the UK was dependent on migrant labour for essential services to run during the pandemic in care, health, service delivery, retail and more. Black and Brown and migrant workers on the front line lost their lives disproportionately, contracting COVID while at or travelling to work: for example Belly Mujinga, who worked at Victoria Station in London and migrated to the UK from the now Democratic Republic of Congo. In her job she went above and beyond to support and help customers and the wider public, and despite telling her employer she was in a high-risk group she was forced to do frontline work where she was spat at by a member of the public.
So what is a ‘significant’ contribution according to Starmer?
Saving lives, keeping the UK running, caring for vulnerable people, contributing to arts, health, science, law, hospitality and much more are apparently not enough, promoting an age-old racist idea that if you are Black or Brown you are expected to be twice as good and work twice as hard as others for the same gains.
Amongst those of the Windrush Generation and their descendants and other migrant people threatened with deportations, are people with criminal records. That includes people who have spent their entire adult life and for many the vast majority of their childhood in the UK. This constitutes a triple punishment , a custodial sentence in prison, then held in detention centres, akin to prisons, followed by deportation. Whilst in contrast when British born people serve a sentence for a crime, they are allowed to do their time, be rehabilitated and start afresh. The government now want to broaden this policy and target those with less than 12-month sentences and non-custodial sentences.
Black people are already more likely to get custodial sentences than their white counterparts for the same crime, receive longer sentences and are disproportionately stopped and searched because they face institutional racism in the criminal justice system and in policing.
The Windrush Lessons Learned report eventually published in 2020 made 30 recommendations which have yet to be implemented, the vast majority of victims of the Windrush Generation have not even been offered compensation under the failed Windrush Compensation Scheme , sadly many have died in poverty as a result and the stress and trauma of their experiences has contributed to their ill health and deaths.
Starmer’s plans on immigration show that nothing has been learned and seeks to introduce another Windrush Scandal, to increase injustice experienced by migrant communities and fuel and incite racism. It disregards Britain’s colonial rule and British Empire legacies and the impacts of climate change, persecution and conflict forcing people to flee for their lives and to be displaced.
We must stand up against these attacks, and not allow any communities to be pitted against each other or for migrants to be blamed and used in this way. The UK would collapse if all migrant workers and their descendants downed tools and left.
- Zita Holbourne FRSA is an equality and human rights campaigner, leading trade unionist, multidisciplinary artist, author, and Chair/Co-founder of Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (BARAC). You can follow her on Facebook and Instagram, and BARAC on Facebook, Twitter/X and Instagram.
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