Build a Welcoming Britain: Towards an Internationalist
Socialist Immigration Policy
Conference notes:
● This government’s treatment of Ukrainian and Afghan refugees, and the Windrush scandal victims, show its policies are out of touch.
● Public polling shows increasing support for asylum seekers’ right to work.
● UNHCR said the Nationality and Borders Bill would “penalise most refugees seeking asylum”.
● Making migrant workers precarious diminishes our power to unionise and fight back.
● We applaud PCS trade unionists considering striking against dangerous maritime “pushback” plans.
● Labour must build solidarity, campaign for migrants’ rights, and an antiracist, internationalist alternative.
Labour in opposition and government will:
● Repeal the Nationality and Borders Bill and all anti-migrant legislation;
● Secure an immigration system based on dignity not numerical caps, minimum income/wealth requirements, or utility to employers;
● Allow asylum seekers to work immediately upon arrival;
● Guarantee safe, legal routes for asylum seekers, day-one rights to education and social security, and expand family reunion rights;
● Abolish “no recourse to public funds”, NHS access restrictions and all Hostile Environment policies;
● Introduce a simple process for all UK residents to gain permanent residency;
● Introduce equal voting rights for all UK residents;
● Replace Settled Status with an automatic Right to Stay;
● Close all detention centres; end all immigration raids, detention, and deportations, including racist “double sentencing”;
● Support workers refusing to implement deportations, Hostile Environment measures and pushbacks;
● Level up domestic workers’ rights to equal other workers;
● Reenter Europe’s free movement area, and pursue free movement agreements with other countries, including in all future trade deals, with the goal of equal free movement for all.
Submitted to Momentum Policy Primary by: Labour Campaign for Free Movement, Walthamstow Momentum