EU accused of “buckling at the knees” in the face of populist attitudes to immigration

Politicians in the European Union, particularly in the United Kingdom, “have buckled at the knees” in the face of unfair populist opposition to immigration from voters, it was charged yesterday.

“(Migration) is now largely a political orphan. Nobody seems to be willing to speak up for the good that it brings,” said Peter Sutherland, the United Nations’ special representative on migration.

Contrary to popular belief, immigrants benefit the countries in which they live and there is no evidence that they are any more likely to abuse welfare rules that citizens of the countries in which they go to live The European Union as a whole needs immigrants, he said last night when he gave the latest Trinity College, Dublin Henry Grattan hosted by the Irish Embassy in London, noting the Union’s greying demographics.

“Creating the impression that we can make immigration go away simply hardens societies against immigrants. It foments nationalism. And it empowers extremists and populists,” he declared.

The United Kingdom was the country to most strongly back the enlargement of the EU in the 1990s, yet now most strongly opposes the rights of EU citizens to live and work anywhere in the Union.

“This is foolish but it is above all a lost opportunity.There is nothing wrong with wanting to exercise control consistent with your treaty obligations over your borders.

“But there is everything wrong with trying to reverse the irreversible by advancing arguments that are invalid. These in turn give rise to xenophobia and racism,” he said.

Mr Sutherland, a former Irish Attorney General and European Commissioner, is now the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon on migration and development.

He said it is “inconceivable” that Prime Minister David Cameron will be able seriously to challenge the “core principle” of free movement rights, he believed.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has already made this “abundantly clear”, he said: “Other countries too would in any event rightly defend the principle and unanimity would be required to change it.”

Charges of “benefit tourism” allege that a serious problem exist: “It does not. Studies confirm that more migrants work proportionately than those from the native population.” More immigrants will be needed by the EU in the next decades ahead, but existing integration policies “are often couched in terms of implied or expressed criticism of the migrants themselves”

Differences that “do not challenge the core values of the host country” should be respected, while, equally, immigrants must respect its “essential values and laws”.