Boris Gives Explicit Support
In October 2008, the London Assembly passed a motion backing the Mayor's support for an amnesty for long-term migrants and called on the Government to implement it.
The following month, London's Conservative mayor, Boris Johnson, gave an interview to Channel 4 News endorsing the idea in terms almost identical to the Strangers into Citizens proposals. He said the expulsion of London's 400,000 illegal immigrants was "just not going to happen". While he was powerless to change national policy on the issue, Johnson said he wanted to "lead the debate" by commissioning a study into the feasibility of the idea. He said he favoured the idea of an "earned amnesty", whereby after a period of about five years individuals could "show their commitment to this society and to this economy" to earn the right to stay. "We want to look in detail at what the economic impact of such an earned amnesty system would be," he said.
Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor repeated his support for the idea, backing mayor Boris on the BBC Sunday programme.
In November 2008 the mayor announced he had commissioned a study from the London School of Economics.
On 9 March 2009, a BBC Panorama programme included some findings from the LSE's interim report which showed that the undocumented population of the UK had increased to around 725,000, and that it would take 34 years and cost £8bn forcibly to remove them. The report estimated that around 70 per cent of the UK total lived in London, and that 450,000 would be regularised under the mayor's proposal.
Strangers into Citizens welcomed the revised figures as more realistic. "We have consistently said that the Home Office figures were too low and that 700-800,000 was more realistic, said its policy director, Dr Austen Ivereigh. "We welcome confirmation of the reality by a leading research institution. We can now have more realistic discussion about what to do."
"If it was completely impossible back then to claim that deportation was a solution, it is even more impossible in the light of the new figures," he added.
The mayor told 'Panorama': "If it does look as though they could make a contribution to society, we should regularise their status or offer them the chance of regularising their status. There would be some very tough criteria. Obviously no criminal record would be one, an ability to support yourself and support your family, commitment to society and the most, the most important thing is they should have been here for a considerable period of time."
Mr Johnson said it was a "hard political argument to win" but added: "If people are going to be here and we've chronically failed to kick them out it's morally right that they should contribute in their taxes to the rest of society."
Read more about this topic: Strangers Into Citizens
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