Are walls and tighter border controls the answer to the big questions on immigration? Do they achieve what their advocates set out to do? Or should the world aim to return to a time when less xenophobia and more trust in people was the order of the day?
Read on »Posts Tagged: public opinion
Migrants’ Rights Network: Immigration controls, but at what cost?
PM Theresa May has now set out her vision for a UK outside the EU. UKREN Coordinator Alan Anstead takes a look at what this could mean to real families where one partner is from an EU country and the other a Brit. Along the way he shares his personal story as someone in just this situation.
Read on »Migrants’ Rights Network: The challenges facing migrants’ rights campaigners in 2017
MRN’s new Director, Fizza Qureshi, welcomes the New Year and the major challenges it brings. The picture may look bleak, but that’s no reason for pessimism. It’s a spur to building alliances and campaigning harder for a rights-based approach to migration.
Read on »(Migrants’ Rights Network) The Calais Jungle – a beacon for the fight against refugee injustice
The Jungle camp in Calais has challenged the indifference of official Europe to the plight of refugees for close on two decades. It has survived previous attempts at demolition. As long as the grievances that gave rise to remain it will come back to haunt the conscience of the continent.
Read on »Migrants’ Rights Network: Byron Hamburgers: When employers fail to do right by migrant employees
What else could Byron’s have done? The social media world was awash with attempted defences of the hamburger chain after it collaborated in the arrest of 35 of its migrant workers earlier in July. Our answer is they didn’t have to go along with the shabby act of entrapment of its staff, and they could have done so much more to push back against punitive, anti-worker rules.
Read on »Migrants’ Rights Network: Brexit and potential human rights implications
A small majority of UK voters said that the UK should leave the EU in the referendum on 23 June. UKREN’s Alan Anstead looks at some of the main human rights implications of the UK government invoking article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and starting the countdown to leaving the EU.
Read on »Migrants’ Rights Network: 2015 – The year when immigration became an indissolubly European issue
Halfway through December seems like a good time to sketch out some ideas on what 2015 might come to mean in a history of immigration which has yet to be written.
Read on »Migrants’ Rights Network: Lessons of Paris – Borders won’t protect us: Solidarity with refugees remains the best hope
The Friday 13th attacks in Paris are being interpreted by many commentators as politicians as a watershed moment in public attitudes towards refugee policies in Europe.
Read on »Migrants’ Rights Network: “How to talk about immigration?”
Don Flynn* The thinktank British Future created a stir last week with the publication of its new book, How to talk about immigration. It is clear that, given the current febrile state of the public mood, a lot of damage can be done by talking about immigration in ways that are insensitive to many people’s
Read on »Migrants’ Rights Network: Note to Party leaders: Misleading voters about what can and can’t be done on immigration will still get you nowhere
Don Flynn* Emergency brakes and benefit caps were put on offer by party leaders this week. Both are intended to get across the message that immigration can be got back under control. But aren’t there bigger truths that we should be trying to get across, like how the movement of people is all a part
Read on »Migrants’ Rights Network: Is migration blocking the way to post-national global outlooks?
Don Flynn* We are living in a world that is evermore global in the way it lives its daily life. So why does public opinion seem to be becoming more nationalistic? Is the experience of migration a part of the reason? An interesting new book considers these questions. Read original posting here. Here is a
Read on »Migrants’ Rights Network: ‘Too Many Immigrants?’, ‘Big Romanian Invasion’, or ‘Glasgow Girls’: Which got closer to the truth in telling the story of immigration?
Don Flynn* You wait for weeks for a programme that allows migrants to tell the stories of their lives, and then three come along at once. The media critic Ben Bagdikian once complained that trying to be a first class reporter on the average American newspaper is like trying to play Bach’s ‘St
Read on »Migrants’ Rights Network: #MigrantsContribute! promises an active campaign to advance positive arguments for migrants
Migrant Tales insight: Another excellent posting by Migrants’ Rights Network on how immigrant communities challenge politicians who spread lies and reinforce prejudices about migrants. We need such a campaign in Finland. Writes Don Flynn: #MigrantsContribute! is a social media-style name for a campaign that aims to bust into the mainstream with its core message that, far
Read on »Migrants’ Rights Network: UKIP’s strong showing challenges supporters of migrants’ rights to do better
By Don Flynn* There’s no point hiding the fact that the right wing party made effective use of public anxieties about immigration to build its position. But all the evidence on how the argument is running shows that it can still be turned round. But we’ll need a new upsurge of activism in support
Read on »Migrants’ Rights Network: The anti-immigrant message stumbles, but who will come out on top?
By Don Flynn* Only a few days left before the vote in the European and local election poll. The anti-immigrant hardliners are taking flack after an inept radio interview performance by the leading Ukipper. But has the liberal mainstream the gumption to allow it forge past them with an optimistic message about diversity? For
Read on »Migrants’ Rights Network: Public moods on free movement: Should we just follow the herd?
Don Flynn* The new report on free movement in the EU from IPPR argues that pro-migration groups have to triangulate their advocacy with the antagonistic moods that currently hold sway. But do they need to go quite so stridently in the direction of arguing that they dictate the need for a ‘new
Read on »Migrants’ Rights Network: Why we need a new anti-racist movement if we are to secure the rights of migrants
Don Flynn* Anti-racism and the battle for the rights of migrant seem to have moved some distance apart in recent years. It is time to reverse that, and re-forge a unity between the two that will be able to take on the challenges that come from growing xenophobic moods. The coalition of groups supporting the
Read on »Migrants’ Rights Network: Wanted: Truth and clarity about migration to the UK today
MT comment: Is it a coincidence that the same issues but in a different context are taking place in Finland and elsewhere in Europe? Even if elections are supposed to be a time when we celebrate our democratic rights, for some, like migrants and minorities, it has come to represent a day of uncertainty, even
Read on »
Recent Comments