The title off this posting and of the Guardian letter below is something that I have been warning about for many years and was the reason for writing the first two chapters of my book ‘Progressive Protectionism’ http://progressiveprotectionism.com and my joint report with Jonathon Porritt: ‘The Progressive Case for Taking Control of EU Immigration – and Avoiding Brexit in the Process’ http://www.jonathonporritt.com/sites/default/files/users/TheProgressiveCaseforTakingControlofImmigration.pdf
Progressive have failed utterly to come up with comprehensive answers to this growing crisis. As such we have left the field open to the electoral success of right wing populists across Europe and in the US. This letter tries to briefly summarise a way forward and is fleshed out in the references above. It is to be hoped that will help in some small way to kick start an urgently needed process of finding progressive answers to one of the most destabilising and dangerous issue of our times.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/21/the-future-of-politics-will-be-dominated-by-migration
The future of politics will be dominated by migration
Colin Hines offers a progressive agenda to tackle the migration crisis
Letters
Fri 22 Jun 2018
• The way immigration utterly dominated your 20 June edition is a harbinger of things to come, as people grasp that this issue, and how to tackle it, will dominate the future of politics. To solve the migration crisis, which is tearing European and now US politics apart, will require a three-pronged approach. This must consider the pros and cons of immigration from the perspective of the countries the migrants have left, the migrants themselves, and the views of the majority in the country migrants have entered or are attempting to enter. The rapid rate of population growth in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean will add to the urgency of this approach.
Democratic, progressive and internationalist policies would include ones that meet the concerns of the majority with stricter border controls, but which also grasp the urgency of seeing all foreign policy, aid and trade agreements in terms of improving the lives of the majority in poorer countries, and thus helping to minimise permanent migration globally. Progressive policies could range from increasing living standards for the poorer section of society through fair taxation to limiting arms sales, decarbonising economies and reducing resource use.
Finally, the other forces that have caused insecurity in the recipient countries – globalisation, austerity and the increasing additional threat of automation roaring up the skill ladder – must be reversed. The disruption at present caused by migration could be the prism through which such long-sought goals finally become reality.
Colin Hines
Author, Progressive Protectionism