Schedule 3
Equality Bill
3:30 pm
Diane Abbott (Hackney North and Stoke Newington, Labour)
The afternoon wears on, but I want to say a few words on the exemption—long standing, I know—of immigration services from the requirements on nationality and ethnic origin under the Bill. It may be long standing, but that does not necessarily mean that it is correct. When I first came to the House 22 years ago, I made a speech on immigration and I am regularly among the top 10 MPs who write to the immigration and nationality directorate on such matters. Over that time, I have dealt with literally thousands of immigration and nationality cases on behalf of my constituents and sometimes on behalf of others when their MP would not help them. I have observed that one problem with immigration and nationality legislation is not so much that it is consciously racist, but that it is consciously chaotic and consciously reacts to media panic. Twenty-odd years ago, East African Asians from Kenya who came here were to bring about the end of civilisation as we know it. More recently, it has been Romanian ladies in headscarves and Polish plumbers.
The random nature of immigration legislation could be properly mitigated if it did not have such blanket exemptions. Nothing brings our immigration process into such disrepute as the notion that it bears more heavily on people because of skin colour than otherwise, whether it is true or not. Nothing causes more pain to my constituents than the very real state of affairs whereby people from the Commonwealth, who may have all sorts of cultural links, are often treated less favourably in immigration matters than people of a different skin colour who are not from the Commonwealth. I am not saying that there might not be grounds for some sort of exemption, but such a broad exemption helps our immigration legislation to be more chaotic and unfair than it might be otherwise. I hope that, during our proceedings in Committee or even on Report, we can return to the subject and deal with it at slightly greater length.