A new report from prominent migration expert Zoe Gardner has won the endorsement of several Labour backbenchers. The report, Time for change: The evidence-based policies that can actually fix the immigration system, was published by the campaign group Another Europe Is Possible.

The report argues that “Labour has allowed its critics on the far-right to set the agenda, even mimicking some of the policy ideas.” It suggests that advertising Labour’s hostility to immigrants only increases support for Reform – whereas a truly progressive policy could actually be popular with a majority of the public.

What would such a policy look like? The guiding principles should be safe and orderly access to asylum, a well-managed labour migration system that promotes workers’ rights and an evidence-based integration and inclusion agenda.

This means that safe routes from Europe need to be established to undercut the power of people smugglers. The Public and Commercial Services Union that represents Border Force officials who respond to small boats crossings has put forward a plan for how to administer a safe route for asylum seekers to reach the UK from Europe based on the Ukraine scheme.

Restoring the right to work for asylum seekers would lead to an estimated £28 billion net fiscal gain. Fast-tracking clearly well-founded cases is also essential.

Further money could be saved by replacing for-profit accommodation – “a money-grabbing opportunity for corporations ever since it was outsourced to the private sector” – with local-authority not-for-profit provision. Institutional accommodation in ex-military barracks and similar sites, says the report, has repeatedly been shown to be “unacceptably poor”.

The report also proposes a rights-based approach to migrant labour by reforming labour inspection and protections from workplace exploitation and scrapping restrictive employer-sponsored visas. It also calls for a fairer policy on integration with a universal route to settlement and the restoration of birthright citizenship.

The report concludes: “If Labour does not learn to tell a different story about immigration, they will gift the country to the hands of the far right, with disastrous consequences for all.”

The report was welcomed by a number of Labour backbenchers, including Clive Lewis and Rachel Maskell, who said: “Along with a large majority of the public, I’ve long backed giving asylum seekers the right to work to support their integration into our communities.”

Nadia Whittome MP agreed: “This report outlines an approach to immigration that the Labour party and the public could be proud of. One that treats people with the dignity and humanity they deserve and reverses the cowardice that has us chasing unworkable, performative cruel policies in an attempt to satisfy a hateful anti-migrant narrative.”

Image: Migrants welcome here GJN banner. Author: Global Justice Now, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.