The slogan “no borders” is currently a utopian fantasy as it is tantamount to advocating the abolition of national states under capitalism. Capitalism needs states – to regulate relations between businesses; to impose common laws and currency which aid capital accumulation; to organise labour markets and the provision of education, transport and health-care and to try to prevent recession turning into economic collapse. In fact the deeper the crisis, the greater the tensions between rival companies, the more the competition heats up, the more the state is needed to impose some sort of ‘order’. The national state also has a role to play in aiding and assisting in the exploitation of the workforce – hence the use of immigration controls. On the one hand those who own and control the wealth want the freedom to make as much profit whenever wherever, and however they want. But at the same time the system is based on oppression and exploitation, so they demand the right to restrict the freedom and movement of labour. These restrictions take the form both of attacking trade unions at ‘home’, and also controlling those that are forced to move abroad. Indeed, divisions within the working class has always been an essential feature of the capitalist system. This was a point that Marx recognised when he talked about the racism directed by English workers against migrant Irish workers. He called this antagonism the “secret of the impotence of the English working class ... It is the secret by which the capitalist class maintains its power." So today, nations play an important function in the regulation of the world economy.
If mobility of labour is so central to the workings of capitalism, what is the logic for an increase in immigration controls? At times of economic boom, there are few or no restrictions on immigration. Indeed, governments actively encourage migration. But with the onset of a recession and the accompanying rise in unemployment, they were able to call upon an excess pool of labour which now exists without the inconvenience of importing migrants who now become a problem the government no longer needs, and no longer wants to support. So their entry is increasingly restricted.
The immigrant is faced by a legislative and bureaucratic structure of quite amazing complexity. Several studies indicate how problems have been created because immigrants have been misinformed and are unacquainted with the labyrinthine rules and procedures. Frequently immigrants have no political or economic organisation to protect them. British-born workers view migrants as rivals for employment and undercutting wages and conditions. Many workers bewail the high numbers of immigrants, arguing that due to the increased supply of labour, wages in several unskilled and low-skilled job sectors have fallen, hitting the indigenous working class. The extra demand for housing has forced prices and rents even higher.
Crucially, as the Socialist Party points out , is quite simple for those who choose to see it: it is the owner of the means of production who will decide who will work, with what technology, for what wages, where the work will be sited and what level of unemployment (surplus labour, indigenous or foreign) will be best for his maximum profit.The anti-immigrant argument has the effect of freeing the capitalist class of all responsibility for the things that they actually have control over. It is not just silly but very dangerous. It is the height of class treachery to our class (remembering that the working class stretches far beyond Britain), to opt for a policy of blaming the immigrant for all British workers’ woes, even if this will strike a chord with the basest instincts of many workers. Take the question of the shortage of housing being the fault of immigrants. Immigrants tend to be ghettoised into the lowest quality housing in over-crowded conditions yet many workers subscribes to the popular view that “they come over here with nothing and are given the best houses by the council.” Workers do say these things and, if not shown the errors of these views, will tend to believe them. But that is no excuse to pander to these views or worse, to try to give these racist views credibility. The fact that this level of ignorance exists does not make it either right or desirable, it only goes to show the staggering amount of work that real communists have to do to bring education. As for stealing jobs, it is just a short step from that to arguing that if women stayed at home, looking after the kids, there would be more jobs for the men of the house, at higher rates. Does anyone really believe that the percentage rate of unemployment (necessary to capitalist economics) would fall if all immigration ceased? In fact, this flawed theory can be used against any group, anything at all it seems except the political system of capitalism. The Socialist Party has never been afraid to take a minority position that is correct merely because it is unpopular with the working class at the time.
We have a job to do to educate all workers to realise the need to build socialism. Scape-goating newcomers is playing the bosses’ game, turning worker against worker. As the problems of the global capitalism becomes more acute, so too will the desire of the capitalist class to use all weapons – in particular that of nationalism – to divide working people. The response is to fight for the common interest of working class unity. The danger from the nationalist or racist is real but we can fight it, provided we start with class arguments.
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