Wednesday 7 October 2015

If Theresa May wants to integrate migrants she should be seeking to strengthen trade unions and implement a living wage

Theresa May's speech flew totally in the face of the economic reality of immigration. Britain has a rapidly ageing population and needs all the migrants it can get. If May is concerned about low pay and migrants undercutting indigenous workers wages and conditions there are two measures that can be taken to remedy the situation. First, raise the minimum wage to living wage level and vigorously enforce it, second, strengthen trade unions and get the incoming workers to join up. Not only would this stop the undercutting of wages and promote community cohesion but it would also mean that May's Tories could really call themselves the party of working people. Win win surely?

* published in the I and Evening Standard - 8/10/2015

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