“What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly,” he wrote in a letter to American bishops this week, adding that “the act of deporting people… damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families”.
But, just as a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, there’s no point in deporting an immigrant if a political party can’t shout about it. Hence Labour blanketing Facebook with Reform-coded ads trumpeting its “five year high in migrant removals”, and its pièce de résistance: a heavily blurred video showing Border Force officials escorting a group of unidentified men onto a deportation flight. Who are these people? What airport is this? Where are they going? What have they done? Clearly, it doesn’t matter – all that matters is that they’re leaving the country.
The problem is that Reform’s pitch to voters is a political dead end – and that goes for Reform, too. The issues that it has identified – an increasing dissatisfaction with living standards, a pervasive sense of a country slowly circling the drain – are not ones that can be fixed by tackling illegal migration.
They are not living the high life on taxpayers’ dime – the level of financial support available to asylum seekers is actually 29 per cent less in real terms than it was in 2000, a quarter of a century ago. They are not taking jobs either – in fact, they are almost always barred from working, even though campaign groups like Refugee Action have argued that giving them a right to work would help them contribute to society and actually boost the UK economy by £333m.
A stranger invited me for lunch. I'm so glad I went
Read MoreMigrants are not the reason why rent is going up. They are not the reason why over a million people in the UK are out of work. They are not the reason why you can’t get a GP appointment. They are not even the reason why your supermarket shop costs more – although a migrant almost certainly picked most of the fruit and veg in your basket.
Even if Labour managed to singlehandedly frogmarch every single undocumented person in the country onto a Boeing 737 to nowhere, it wouldn’t do a thing to assuage the economic stagnation and lack of growth that is causing such unhappiness or hardship among voters.
That’s why Labour’s big push on immigration is doomed. If Reform ever get into power – and I’m sure Nigel Farage is currently going to bed with dreams of No10 dancing before his eyes – they will be destined to fail, too.
There aren’t enough deportation flights in the world to make a difference – on this, Pope Francis and I agree.
Zing Tsjeng is a journalist, non-fiction author, and podcaster
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