Strangers Into Citizens - An Idea Gaining Momentum?

An Idea Gaining Momentum?

Starting in 2007, the UK Border Agency (formerly the Border and Immigration Agency and, previously, the Immigration and Nationality Directorate of the Home Office) began an attempt to clear the backlog of unresolved asylum cases. Although not officially an amnesty but a 'case resolution exercise', this has led to a number of asylum-seeking families whose applications had been refused being granted Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK.

Because this legal recognition was given on the basis of their "long association with the UK", according to wording of the letters that these families have received, it has obvious points in common with the Strangers into Citizens campaign, and may well have been influenced by it.

In July 2008, the liberal policy thinktank Centre Forum published a policy paper whose title -- "Earned amnesty: bringing illegal workers out of the shadows"—borrowed heavily from the Strangers into Citizens campaign's language and concepts. But while many of the arguments were the same, Centre Forum proposed that immigrants pay their way into British citizenship, spending £5,000 over a period of years, and requiring a residence of just three months.

In September 2008 The Independent reported that Anthony Browne, director of the Conservative policy thinktank Policy Exchange who is soon to start as the Mayor of London's policy director, would be releasing a policy document favouring regularisation. In a comment piece in the newspaper, Browne argued for a "permanent earned amnesty for those who have been in the country a long time", halving the current long residency concession of 14 to seven years before reducing it still further.

The new Labour Immigration Minister Phil Woolas told The Times that "An amnesty... starts with a discussion among politicians and ends with dead bodies in the back of a truck in Calais."