The famous quote from Swiss novelist Max Frisch goes, “We wanted workers, but we got people instead.” At the time, Frisch was talking about the short-term migrant worker visas that were introduced across Europe to plug labour shortages in the 50s and 60s. Today, the Conservatives have built a post-Brexit visa regime that strips humanity from migrant workers much further.
Most temporary migrant workers to the UK today are allowed to come for only limited periods, and they are tied to working in a single industry until they are churned back out. They of course pay high fees for the privilege. This approach has fuelled deteriorating conditions, labour shortages, and severe exploitation.
We urgently need a migration system that provides us with the workers we need without making them vulnerable to abuse in the process. To do that, we must first tackle the lie about ‘economic migrants’.
