It's not about arbitrary quotas!

As published in the Suffolk Free Press, Thursday, May 10, 2018;

 I campaigned for Brexit for many reasons. One of these was for a more enlightened immigration policy.

Surprised? I don’t blame you.

The narrative from the liberal elite was that Brexiteers like me were all racists, closet or otherwise. We continue to be vilified by Remainers, desperate to find any excuse to reverse the British people’s democratic decision of 23 June 2016.

But for me, this issue is all about what works best for this country – and this region. It is certainly not about returning to some fantasy society straight out of an Ealing comedy, where everyone was white and knew their place.

Quite simply, we need the right numbers with the required skills of non-UK workers to ensure our economy prospers.

The ‘fortress Europe’ policy of the European Union has meant that we’ve had only the most limited influence over one type of person (EU nationals) arriving here, whilst another group (non-EU nationals) are subject to very high barriers of entry.

My great hero, the US libertarian philosopher Ayn Rand, put it this way: You want to forbid immigration on the grounds that it lowers your standard of living — which isn’t true, though if it were true, you’d still have no right to close the borders. You’re not entitled to any “self-interest” that injures others, especially when you can’t prove that open immigration affects your self-interest.”

At a time of record employment numbers and a worsening skills shortage, it is a national priority to operate an immigration policy that makes it as easy as possible for the right types of workers to arrive here – and be welcomed here.

And I do mean welcomed. A free trade Britain, detached from a bureaucratic and defensive EU, should become a homeland for hard-working and entrepreneurial peoples from across the globe.

As a society we need to embrace those waves of workers and their families, from the Windrush generation to the present day, who have boosted this country’s economic and social wealth. I was appalled at the Government’s shilly-shallying in only guaranteeing at the last-minute the right of EU citizens and their families resident here on 29 March 2018 to remain.

Nowhere is this need for workers more pressing than in the land-based agricultural sector, including horticulture, which is still such a vital part of the East Anglian economy Norfolk and Suffolk economies.

The Seasonal Agricultural Workers’ Scheme (SAWS), which regulated the number of non-UK workers that could come here was scrapped in 2013. Since then, the sector’s trade associations have been lobbying the Government to reinstate it as a matter of priority.

Reports suggest that there is just enough labour available to ensure that fruit doesn’t rot on the branches and vegetables remain in the ground – for this year. From 2019, the sector is facing a collective D-Day unless it can bring in the right workers with the right skills and aptitudes.

Of course, there wouldn’t be quite such an urgent need to fill vacancies had we a rising generation that was harder working, less inclined to think certain types of work as beneath them and not suffering from inter-generational welfare dependency.

There is an equal duty on the part of recent arrivals to contribute to their host society – but that requires the rest of us to be far more willing to incorporate them into our everyday lives and social networks.

So, we need to move away from arbitrary quotas to an immigration system that is dynamic and welcoming of the best talent across the board. In short, a free trade and fair trade Britain should be concerned less about headline numbers and more, much more about the inward flow of skills, knowledge, capacity for hard-work and flair.

And that’s what a post-Brexit immigration policy should look like.