The hardline message of the new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) on irregular immigration is designed to reassure working-class voters that a Labour government would control immigration. The IPPR, an influential think-tank with strong links to the Labour Party, starts with the policy position that ‘irregular immigration’ must be reduced, because
Child detention still inhumane
Despite Clegg’s pronouncements that ‘one of the most child-friendly immigration systems in the developed world’ is being implemented, the harshness of the government’s new strategies for detaining and deporting children is now becoming clear. The ‘end'[1] of the detention of children in immigration removal centres came after a long fought campaign uniting a diverse array
Creating common sense racism – its election time again
To what extent are politicians entrenching a common sense racism as they purport to deal with popular fears? It is election time again and politicians are returning to their core ‘narratives’ and vote winning strategies. The politics of race and prejudice coded as ‘immigration’ dominated media coverage of the 2010 general election. It is certainly
Ninety deaths since the murder of Stephen Lawrence
Today sees the eighteenth anniversary of the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993. Stephen was murdered in a racially motivated attack in which his friend Duwayne Brooks was also injured. Stephen’s death came at a time when a number of young people had met their death on the streets of the UK in areas that
Understanding the European-wide assault on multiculturalism
In singling out multiculturalism as a threat to national identity, the leaders of Europe’s centre-right parties are using the same kind of rhetoric and specious arguments as Enoch Powell did forty years ago. The leaders of mainstream political parties across Europe are, one after the other, announcing the death of multiculturalism in their countries. They
The attacks on multiculturalism are linked to the economic crisis
The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) publishes today Understanding the European-wide assault on multiculturalism – a detailed analysis by Executive Director, Liz Fekete, of key speeches made over the past six months by leading centre-right politicians from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom. These speeches attack multiculturalism and immigration
Linking racial violence to media coverage
Negative media coverage of BME issues leads, according to ongoing research by the Institute of Race Relations, to racial attacks. When the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary team broadcast ‘Lessons in Hate and Violence’ earlier this year, the programme provoked furore. The documentary used footage taken from two years of covert recordings in various Islamic schools
New immigration rules cause alarm
Domestic violence victims will be forced to stay with violent partners, lawyers say. As from 21 April, people who came to Britain to join British or settled migrant partners and seek settlement with them after the two-year probationary period, or have been forced to leave them through domestic violence, must have a clean criminal record
Learn the language – how?
David Cameron blames immigrants for not learning the language at the same time as the government launches devastating cuts to English language learning provision for migrants and refugees. In his speech to Conservative party members in Hampshire, Cameron highlighted the important role that the English language plays in good integration through binding ‘real communities’ together
Race against educational proposals
This special issue of Race Equality Teaching (RET), an equality impact assessment of the Con-Dem government’s educational programme, unpicks exactly what is in store for the nation. On the one hand is the 2010 white paper entitled The Importance of Teaching and the education bill, on the other hand is Theresa May’s supposed commitment to