Labour Conference 2022 must vote for migrants’ rights and free movement – support our motion
Posted: 22 March 2022
As the Conservative government continues its assault on migrants with its outrageous anti-refugee Nationality & Borders Bill, it’s as important as ever that Labour stands firm and fights for a positive alternative of workers’ solidarity, free movement and workers’ rights. In 2019, our campaign led the way to Labour’s annual conference voting for the clearest, firmest pro-migrant policy in memory. Now, we need to reject any move to pander to xenophobia, reaffirm and deepen the commitment that party members, affiliates and trade unions made in 2019, and organise the Labour party from the grassroots to the top as a campaigning force.
So we need Constituency Labour Parties and affiliates to submit this motion for Labour’s Annual Conference 2022. Please get in touch (info@labourfreemovement.org) if you can propose it in your CLP, or if you would like to talk about how to do so. We will also be seeking the support of campaign groups across the party, starting with Momentum’s policy primary.
Updated 27 June 2022. Please note that this is at the word limit – 10/10 words in the title, 248/250 words in the text – so if anything more were added, the whole submission would be ruled out.
Migrant solidarity: towards a humane, internationalist and socialist immigration policy
The government’s inhumane immigration policy is illustrated by its treatment of Ukrainian and Afghan refugees, Windrush scandal victims, and everyone crossing the Channel; the Nationality and Borders Act’s assault on the right to asylum; and the brutal Rwandan deportation scheme.
Attacks on migrants are attacks on the labour movement. Making migrant workers precarious diminishes our power to resist.
Conference applauds PCS trade unionists considering striking against dangerous maritime “pushback” plans.
Labour must build solidarity and campaign for migrants’ rights and an antiracist, internationalist alternative.
Labour will work in power, and campaign in opposition and at the grassroots, to:
repeal the Nationality and Borders Act and all anti-migrant legislation;
reject immigration systems based on numerical caps, minimum income/wealth requirements, or utility to employers;
guarantee safe, legal routes for asylum seekers, day-one rights to work, education and social security, and expand family reunion rights;
abolish “no recourse to public funds”, NHS access restrictions and all Hostile Environment policies;
replace Settled Status with an automatic Right to Stay;
introduce a simple process for all UK residents to gain permanent residency;
grant all UK residents equal voting rights;
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.