Strangers into Citizens

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STRANGERS INTO CITIZENS is a call by the UK’s largest civic alliance to bring thousands of long-term British residents within the scope of the law. It starts from the truth which all admit but few face: that a mass deportation of thousands of UK residents is both impossible and unacceptable. At this point the matter ceases to be a legal question to become a political, social and moral one. Reality has exceeded the confines of the law, and the law must adapt for the sake of human dignity.

Here in the UK for whatever reason we have between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people who live a life of uncertainty, concern and often fear. These are people who have overstayed student visas, awaiting asylum claims, have been denied asylum or have come into the UK by other means. These people are living an existence that does them no good and does society no good. They often have to work in black market employment jobs where their rights as workers are woefully absent. They often work without the concern of safety that we have, and are put upon by all sorts of pressures.

Here's a story from http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20090506_1.htm about Jacob which illustrates the situation of many.

‘Oh, Jacob will do that’, I remember being told when I first arrived at St. Ignatius parish in Stamford Hill, ‘he’s always happy to help.’ Jacob was well-known in the parish. He was an usher at the Sunday Masses and helped to serve the teas and coffees afterwards. An exuberant young man in his early thirties, he had arrived from Nigeria on a student visa 15 years before. One day, I received a call from a solicitor telling me that Jacob was being detained and prepared for deportation. Three days later, despite our best efforts to intervene, he had gone.

It was long after Jacob’s departure that the story emerged of his undocumented status in the UK. Only a few trusted friends – parishioners – had known of his shadow existence. He had overstayed his student visa by twelve years and in that time had changed address eight times, frightened that anything too permanent might lead to detection by immigration authorities. He had been detained five years before and had avoided deportation, but since that time had been required to register every Monday at an immigration office. He worked illegally as a part-time security guard on the other side of London, and did various cleaning and dishwashing jobs in the early mornings and late evenings. As the eldest of 10 children, he would send his family a substantial amount of his earnings each month. His father had passed away during Jacob’s time in the UK and was buried without his eldest son’s presence because Jacob couldn’t leave the country. His aged mother and aunt depended on the remittance sent home every month, and many of his younger siblings had been educated on the strength of it

I see it as irresponsible to leave this situation as is, we only have two choices:

• Deportation
• Residency/Leave to remain

Deportation is often the call from certain sections of society and those of a certain political viewpoint. However it would be totally impractical to deport this number of people. It's estimated that it costs £12000 to deport someone. So 12,000 x 500,000 = 6,000,000,000 or six billion pounds. Seeing as the bankers seem to be at the top of the pile for public handouts at the moment this option falls flat on it's face.

So offering a one-off residency/leave to remain seems a good choice. It takes people out of illegal employment, it generates tax revenue, it enables the 'humanisation' of some of our country's most marginalised people.

It's not going to be a carte blanche for everyone though. There will be criteria such as two years without a criminal record and gainful employment or community recommendation.

Hopefully this will be put into action, as long as the media stop ignoring it.

And oddly enough Strangers into Citizens is attracting support from left and right, from faith groups and others.

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