Wednesday, 8 January 2014

The net migration target is misguided and inhumane

This article is by yours truly.

It was a post on Facebook that first prompted me to look into our immigration policy and what was driving it. A friend of mine had shared a post by an Australian called Harley Miller who is facing deportation from the UK after her application for visa renewal was rejected, despite working in our NHS for nine years and owning a home here. Harley drew my attention to the net migration target and how it is determining the fate of individual lives. When the government talks about reducing net migration, they are talking about removing people like Harley from the UK.

My article also coincides with Vince Cable telling Nick Robinson that he never agreed to the “arbitrary” net migration target because it wasn’t practical or helpful – particularly when many aspects of net migration lie beyond the government’s control.