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Migrants cap debate 'dangerous' Phillips targets white underclass
(about 3 hours later)
Talking about a potential cap on immigration to the UK is "pointless" and could be dangerous, equalities chief Trevor Phillips has told the BBC. More help is needed for areas where there is a "white underclass" which has been "neglected" by existing equalities policies, Trevor Phillips has warned.
He said that as unemployment rises it was important to avoid "stoking anti-immigrant hysteria". "In some parts of the country the colour of failure is not black and brown... it's white - especially in some rural areas," he told the BBC.
The real point was not why immigrants were getting jobs but why many Britons were not competing for jobs, he said. "We fail to deal with it at our peril," the equalities commission chief warned.
Immigration minister Phil Woolas said last week that the population would not rise above 70 million in Britain. "There are people who are waiting with an answer and it's a political answer and it's a nasty one," he added.
He later told the BBC he was not talking about a "numerical cap" but had been addressing a concern raised by some population predictions and insisted the "general trend" in population could be controlled. Mr Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, had earlier told a CBI conference on migration that resentment of immigrants could increase as a result of the economic downturn.
'Dangerous' He used the example of a mother who loses her job and then sees "a clever, young Latvian with three degrees doing the job she would like to do".
Chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Mr Phillips told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that talk of a "numbers game" was "holding out a promise that can't be delivered for a problem that does not exist". "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out how she's likely to feel. She then sees an overworked nursery teacher with a class of 30 with 15 languages. We know who she's going to resent."
Mr Phillips also criticised those talking about a potential cap on immigration to the UK - calling it "pointless" and possibly dangerous.
Unemployment exported
He said that talk of a "numbers game" was "holding out a promise that can't be delivered for a problem that does not exist".
He said the British population would not hit 70 million but could not be capped anyway because EU citizens have the right to settle in the UK and millions of Britons abroad could return at any time.He said the British population would not hit 70 million but could not be capped anyway because EU citizens have the right to settle in the UK and millions of Britons abroad could return at any time.
Immigration minister Phil Woolas said last week that the population would not rise above 70 million in Britain.
Addressing the same conference in London, he said "let me make clear - the government is not proposing to cap migration... but we need to recognise that the labour market might change".
FROM THE TODAY PROGRAMME More from Today programmeFROM THE TODAY PROGRAMME More from Today programme
He said talking of a cap was talking about "the wrong thing" adding: "I think that engaging in a debate which is about the wrong thing could be dangerous."
Instead Britain needed to focus on extra resources for public services, tackling the perception that immigrants were "cheating" in areas like social housing, and the worries of those losing their jobs which could lead to resentment.
Mr Phillips, who is sharing a platform with Mr Woolas at a CBI immigration conference on Tuesday, said it was not just the immigration minister who had talked about the 70 million figure.
'Positive action'
He said: "The real point we need to focus on, if I can be absolutely blunt, is not so much why immigrants are getting jobs, it is why our people are not competing for jobs.
"I think what we need to do is think much harder about how we kick-start social mobility particularly of many young white people in this country who are not succeeding in education."
He told the conference that poor white people who would be hit hard by the economic downturn may need special help in order to avoid boosting support for far-right groups.
"In some parts of the country, it is clear that what defines disadvantage won't be black or brown, it will be white," he said.
Mr Phillips also said that large numbers of East European migrants were returning home as the economy slowed - helping the UK "export" its unemployment.Mr Phillips also said that large numbers of East European migrants were returning home as the economy slowed - helping the UK "export" its unemployment.
He said that if they were not leaving the country the unemployment rate could be heading for three million, rather than two million.He said that if they were not leaving the country the unemployment rate could be heading for three million, rather than two million.
Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve is also due to address the conference later. Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve told the summit the new points based immigration system was "a step in the right direction".
He is expected to say that the most recent immigration figures suggest that more than 80% of immigrants to Britain - nearly two million people - since Labour came to power have come from outside the EU. "However, a points based system without an upper limit is pointless.
The Conservatives support an annual cap on "economic immigration" - Mr Grieve will say the government's new point-based system is pointless without an upper limit. "Whilst we cannot restrict inward EU migration, this would allow us to control migration from outside the EU, which is around two-thirds of the foreign nationals arriving in the UK each year."
Mr Grieve said annual net migration from outside the EU had risen 144%, from 88,000 in 1997 to 215,000 in 2006. The total net migration from outside the EU was two million since 1997, he said.