No man is an island: what Labour must remember about immigration

Labour this week announced it was taking back control of a so-called failed immigration system, or we risk becoming an “island of strangers”. The phrase pricked ears and undoubtedly raised hairs on the back of Labour members’ necks. I was relieved somewhat to see the narrative swiftly shift to our government instead striving for us all to become a ‘nation of neighbours’.

Coincidentally, the weekend before Labour’s announcement, I joined a Friends of OpenCity walking tour of Whitechapel and Wapping led by Barrett London’s Martin Scholar. Over a two-hour tour, we traversed a rich mosaic of buildings, landmarks and street names. Martin knitted together the story of the communities who shaped the area, including the original residents and dock workers; Jewish, German, Indian and Irish populations, plus more recent arrivals. Around us stood hallmarks which showed just how migration has enriched our capital and its culture.

The tour was also tinged with tragedy, as we gathered in Altab Ali Park. This small park on the Whitechapel Road remains an important memorial commemorating the racially motivated killing of a young Bangladeshi textile worker who died in 1978 on the night of the local elections. Ten days after his killing, 7,000 protestors marched behind the coffin of Altab Ali towards Downing Street. This would mark a sea change in community relations and was an important chapter of the East End’s struggle against racism.

In 1936, Wapping infamously became the focal point of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists, who had planned to march in protest and sought to intimidate and harass the area’s large Jewish population. The Battle of Cable Street saw the far-right halted by more than 300,000 protestors. In Labour Party and Trade Union circles, Cable Street is a common touchstone that underlines solidarity and the importance of community organisation.

This week, these two historic events remind us again that language matters. My tour of Whitechapel of Wapping taught me that integration and the journey of becoming a ‘nation of neighbours’ is not without its struggles, but that immigration has enriched our shores for centuries.

Returning to this week’s announcement, I thought some notable opportunities were missed. The winding down of a dedicated visa for social care workers, introduced during Covid, seems counterintuitive when we know that the contribution of overseas healthcare workers has strengthened our NHS over several generations.

Whilst the government is right to point out that we rely too much on overseas workers, particularly in healthcare, that doesn’t mean we should deny ourselves the skills, compassion and relief that overseas NHS workers provide.

As a former teacher, the criteria for tougher English tests got me thinking. Not least because I recall conversations with former colleagues who taught Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) and worked incredibly hard to inspire young people to take up a new language. There’s a slight irony that from my time teaching, often the most eager students of MFL were first- or second-generation immigrants. Many of these children enjoyed learning a new language and the prospect of achieving recognition for their skills by being entered for GCSEs in Turkish, Polish and Urdu (amongst others). I’d rather see a Labour government foster integration by increasing funding for teachers and celebrating the opportunities that learning a modern foreign language brings.

Lastly, plans to reduce the amount of time overseas graduates can stay in the UK after their studies from 2 years to 18 months is disappointing. Not least because I doubt anyone would point at student visas as a symptom of a so-called failed immigration system. The UK’s world-leading universities and knowledge economy is built on the free movement of ideas, students and academics. From the party which brought about the Open University under Wilson, one of Labour’s proudest achievements in my view, you’d think the government would welcome international students and graduates.

My words of advice to this Labour government would be to embrace the fact that immigration has already largely succeeded in making us a ‘nation of neighbours’. We must remember our history and the fact that integration has tragically often come at great cost (to immigrant communities), so the language we use matters. Finally, education has a vital role to play in both rightly reducing our reliance on overseas workers and overcoming intolerance on the path to becoming better neighbours.