Ed Miliband writes:
In the past few months, the immigration debate
has focused on the lifting of transitional controls on Bulgaria and Romania.
Whatever the numbers of people that eventually come here, the concern that this
has highlighted is not going away.
Our country faces a fundamental question. Britain
has succeeded through the centuries as an economy that reaches outwards to the
world. Can we maintain that tradition and meet deep public concern about
immigration?
I believe we can. But only if we understand the
sources of anxiety and act on them.
The British people are going through an historic
squeeze on their living standards, a squeeze that has gone on longer than at
any time since the 19th century.
People are hurting and they are asking what is
happening and why nobody seems to be making a difference. And this
cost-of-living crisis goes beyond the difficulties of making ends meet today.
It is about the nature of work, the future people envisage for their children
tomorrow, the whole way our economy is set up.
This cost-of-living crisis is the most important
context for the debate about immigration.
It understandably makes people more fearful of
the change that immigration brings. When millions of workers already have low
pay and poor job security in Britain and we add high levels of low-skilled
migration mostly from the EU, some benefit but some lose out.
Unless we act to change our economy, low-skill
immigration risks making the problems of the cost-of -living crisis worse for
those at the sharp end. It isn't prejudiced to believe that.
That's why Labour has changed on immigration
since 2010.
Nigel Farage would have you believe that the
solution starts and ends at the border. It sounds simple enough. Erect a fortress
around Britain and hold back the world.
But closing Britain off in the 21st century would
be a disaster for jobs, for living standards, for our society and for our
children.
Apart from anything else, we would lose the contribution of
high-skilled workers, never mind the impact on many Britons who would
presumably have to return home from working in other EU countries.
Of course, effective border control is important
and while all the evidence is that most people come here to contribute, we need
a benefits system that is seen to be fair.
But this can only be a part of the
solution because public concern about immigration is also a symptom of a deeper
problem: an economy that no longer works for most working people.
We have to change our country's chronic
dependency on low-skill, low-wage labour. A dependency that is getting worse,
not better.
What chance of rising living standards for all
when unscrupulous firms can exploit workers from abroad to get around the
minimum wage?
What chance of giving everyone a fair shot when
recruitment agencies are allowed to recruit only from overseas, excluding
locals from even hearing about jobs?
What chance of skills for the next generation
when too many employers can just import them without having to train people
here? Who would have predicted that just 14 years into the 21st century IT
apprenticeships would be falling? Not because we don't need IT skills but
because they are too often just brought in from overseas.
If people want a party that will cut itself off
from the rest of the world, or pretend we should try, that is not the Labour
Party.
But if people want a party that will set the right rules to stop a race
to the bottom with workers coming here from abroad, Labour is that party.
Labour won't conduct this debate in the shrill
way that this Government does, for example, trundling vans through our cities
telling people to "Go Home".
Instead, we will reform an economy hard-wired
into a cycle of low wages, low skills, insecure jobs and high prices that is
tearing into the living standards of ordinary families.
It means taking
measures to stop unscrupulous employers using workers from abroad to undercut
wages and worsen conditions.
Official figures suggest that around 300,000
workers in Britain, often from overseas, are paid below the National Minimum
Wage.
But there have been hardly any successful prosecutions for breaking this
law in the past three years and the Government has rejected Labour's efforts to
tighten the legislation.
I have already set out many of the steps which
would be taken by a Labour government.
The next Labour government will substantially
increase the fines for breaching the National Minimum Wage, stop the use of
tied housing that undercuts the minimum wage and ban recruitment agencies from
having a policy only to hire foreign workers
The next Labour government will require all large
employers hiring skilled workers from outside the EU also to take on an
apprentice so that both business and young people will be equipped with the
skills they need to succeed.
And it goes wider than that.
If we are to win a race to the top, Britain needs
a Labour government with measures to drive up skills and drive out
exploitation.
That means skills for the forgotten 50 per cent of young people
who don't go to university, guaranteeing work for young people out of work for
more than a year, and outlawing exploitative zero-hours contracts.
And it also requires that we do more to
strengthen the rules designed to help protect the living standards of Britain's
families.
There is a loophole in the laws around agency
work which allows firms to avoid paying agency workers at the same rates as
directly employed staff.
This is being used in sectors where levels of
employment from abroad are high, such as food production, and now accounts for
as many as one in six of those employed by agencies.
The next Labour government will work with British
business to close this loophole and ensure that agency workers cannot be used
to undercut non-agency staff.
Some in business might be concerned that greater
rights for vulnerable workers will impede flexibility. But they should also
understand that Britain can only maintain the open economy it needs to succeed
if there is proper protection to stop this very openness fuelling a race to the
bottom.
I said in my New Year message that Labour would
be relentlessly focused on tackling the cost-of-living crisis. Britain is a
more prosperous country because we draw on the talents of people from all over
the world.
But I am determined that government, business and people work
together to ensure that this vision of Britain works for all and not just for
some.
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