Immigration Reform in The United Kingdom
As of 2010, in the United Kingdom, there is some cross-party support for immigration reform, largely under the auspices of the Strangers into Citizens campaign. Although the Liberal Democrats are the only major party to fully support reform, some Labour MPs (including former leadership candidate John McDonald), the IPPR (a Labour-leaning think-tank) and Boris Johnson (the Conservative Mayor of London) also support a selective amnesty for illegal immigrants. Under the Liberal Democrat proposal, this would involve regularisation for illegal immigrants who have lived in the country for at least ten years and who do not have a criminal record.
It is argued that bringing many of these (estimates varying widely from 300,000 to 800,000) individuals into the legal economy would allow police to concentrate resources on tackling people traffickers and criminals - and would raise billions in tax revenue - whereas deporting them would cost £4.7 billion and take 30 years. This issue is still a matter of political debate today in the United Kingdom.
Read more about this topic: Immigration Reform
Famous quotes containing the words immigration, reform, united and/or kingdom:
“The admission of Oriental immigrants who cannot be amalgamated with our people has been made the subject either of prohibitory clauses in our treaties and statutes or of strict administrative regulations secured by diplomatic negotiations. I sincerely hope that we may continue to minimize the evils likely to arise from such immigration without unnecessary friction and by mutual concessions between self-respecting governments.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“Every reform was once a private opinion, and when it shall be a private opinion again, it will solve the problem of the age.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Some of the offers that have come to me would never have come if I had not been President. That means these people are trying to hire not Calvin Coolidge, but a former President of the United States. I can’t make that kind of use of the office.... I can’t do anything that might take away from the Presidency any of its dignity, or any of the faith people have in it.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.””
—Bible: New Testament, Matthew 13:31,32.