Boris is right - open our borders

Boris Johnson's proposed amnesty for illegal immigrants is the only fair solution for the people who keep our economy going
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As someone who voted for Ken Livingstone, warts and all, I never thought I could ever seriously engage with anything that Boris Johnson had to say. But then that's the unexpected charm of a maverick. He has called for an amnesty for "illegal" immigrants in London, a brave position to adopt in the current economic climate, in defiance of his own Tory party line and central government policy.

Phil Woolas, the immigration minister, argues against amnesties because they will provide a "pull" factor. The main pull factor is actually a booming economy and all the early evidence is that numbers coming to Britain are dropping away because of the recession.

Of course, Boris has no power to enforce an amnesty, but by commissioning a report on it from the London School of Economics (LSE), he has put the issue on the map. LSE's interim report suggests that approximately 725,000 people would qualify for amnesty.

Boris is motivated by the loss of tax revenue that could be used to pay for the services used by undocumented workers. He mentions health and education, although access to the NHS is severely restricted if you cannot prove your status. The national figure for unpaid taxes has been estimated at £1bn for undocumented workers, an implicit recognition of their high levels of productivity, as most of them earn less than the minimum wage. Compare this to the loss of revenue from tax avoidance and evasion schemes, estimated to be between £97-£150bn per year according to leaked Treasury papers, which would comfortably cover the apparently unaffordable government borrowing of £77bn this year. Nobody questions the right to citizenship of people who have stripped the country's assets to line their own pockets. In fact, quite the opposite – a liberal tax regime is seen as a way of attracting these so-called producers of wealth to inject dynamism in the economy, surely an argument that has had its day .

Boris uses his call for amnesty to take a swipe at the government's failing immigration policy and, in a somewhat contradictory fashion, calls for tougher border controls. Current immigration law is the most draconian the country has ever seen, but people still find a way around that. While issues such as inequality and poverty have no borders, desperate people will not and cannot respect borders. No punitive measures, sanctions, walls or fortresses will keep them at bay.

The US situation demonstrates this problem perfectly. There is a long and porous border with Mexico. The USA has granted seven amnesties to approximately 5.5 million workers since 1986, a more honest response to its need for workers and the disproportionate costs of finding and deporting people who have done nothing worse than doing the worst jobs in their economy.

The small print is disheartening, however. It is to be an earned amnesty. The report proposes a qualifying period of five years, a purely arbitrary figure, but a marginal advance on organisations representing the interests of migrants – the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), which proposed a pathway of 7 years, and Strangers into Citizens, which proposed 6 years. The qualifying period is meaningless. It creates further nooks and crannies where slavery can flourish. Why not simply announce on 18 December, International Migrants' Day, that all undocumented migrants in Britain on that day will be regularised?

However, even this amnesty will leave 700,000 people better off. It will mean a life free from fear of deportation. They will have the protection of employment laws, including the minimum wage, and can even campaign for the London living wage of £7.45 per hour, which Boris has also endorsed. As someone who supports open borders as the only way of ending the enslavement of people whose blood, sweat and tears keep our economy going, this amnesty, with all its flaws, is better than nothing.

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