Weekly Blog - 6 March 2023 - Small Boats Migration
Small boats and asylum seekers
The UK government has had a major push this week to try to stop asylum seekers and migrants entering the UK via small boats crossing the channel. On Tuesday 7 March they introduced the Illegal Migration Bill to parliament, which if passed would mean anyone entering the UK via small boats would be automatically deported to Rwanda or other countries and their claims not considered. Then on Friday 10 March Prime Minister Rishi Sunak held a joint summit with French President Emmanuel Macron, at which he announced more UK funding for French police patrols to prevent small boats departing, and for a migration detention centre in France. More than 45,000 migrants crossed the channel in small boats in 2022, up from around 300 in 2018 when records began[1] After surviving the brutal people smuggling gangs, and a dangerous journey over the channel, they face a long period of uncertainty whilst asylum and other applications are processed through an overstretched system, often whilst they are housed in inadequate, sometimes appalling, conditions.
Economic migration
At the same time, both the UK government and business leaders want to attract other migrant workers to boost the UK economy. Three quarters of UK companies report significant labour shortages in the past year, and 44% of them want the government to provide more temporary visas to enable workers from outside the UK to come and fill the roles.[2] The situation has been complicated by Brexit, which has significantly reduced economic migration from the EU by 72% since the 2016 referendum, whilst non-EU migration has increased by 95% over the same period.[3] Overall, net migration to the UK each year has in fact been declining since 2008.[4] The UK is not alone in wrestling with these difficult issues. Every country in the world is facing the challenges of managing migration fairly in an ever more globalised world. For many developing countries (where poverty, war and climate change are driving much greater levels of migration from their neighbours than anything witnessed in the UK) the challenge is even more acute.
What is a Christian approach to asylum and migration?
So, as Christians how are we to approach asylum and migration? The issue of asylum seekers, refugees and economic migration is one of the areas explored in the Arise Manifesto (Arise’s Christian vision for a better world). This looks at what the Bible says, and what history teaches us, to guide us in what the church and the world should be doing in this and other areas. Firstly, we find that any Christian approach must be rooted in God’s love for all people: asylum seekers, refugees, economic migrants and the host communities they move into. God loves them all, and wants us to meet all their needs fairly.
When it comes to refugees and those seeking asylum, the Bible is clear that those in genuine danger of persecution for their faith, their political views, their ethnicity or other reasons, must be welcomed with open arms. This does not mean that every person resident in a country in conflict or with poor human rights is entitled to asylum in another country. Such a broad definition would cover billions of people around the world. In most conflict countries, the vast majority of the country is at peace and conflict is confined to a relatively small region. Similarly, in most countries with poor human rights standards, ordinary law-abiding citizens are not at risk. However, residents of areas in countries that are directly affected by conflict, or democratic and rights activists, journalists, or members of persecuted minorities in countries with poor human rights who are directly at risk should absolutely be entitled to asylum (Arise Manifesto, pg 122). God repeatedly reminds the Israelites that they were strangers and refugees for centuries in Egypt, and now they too must welcome the foreigner and stranger living amongst them. As the book of Leviticus says, “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.” (Lev 19:34) Such people are so often heroes, struggling for democracy, human rights and greater freedoms in their countries and facing real danger as a result of their courageous actions. They should be honoured, welcomed and supported. Furthermore, they must enjoy full equal status as citizens, and not face any discrimination of any kind (Arise Manifesto, pg 80).
Safe legal routes that are genuinely open for all potential asylum seekers and refugees to enter countries should be created where these are lacking. Systems for processing asylum claims should be massively improved, and laws reformed, to ensure a swift decision for all applicants. This allows those who are genuine to settle quickly, and a swift return those whose claims are not legitimate. The quality of accommodation for asylum seekers and refugees whilst their claims are being processed should be dramatically improved. Governments should also work together internationally to coordinate, manage and share applications fairly between receiving countries, and to use every legal means to crack down and end the evil of people trafficking gangs.
However, welcoming refugees and asylum seekers is not the same as being open to mass economic migration and permanent resettlement of large people groups. History would indicate that whether in the Americas, Australia, Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestine or countless other examples, this has seldom been a peaceful process. Modern states cannot maintain stability in the face of rapid, mass resettlement of large demographic groups (Arise Manifesto, pg 122). Mass economic migration on a huge scale permanently changes the make-up of a country, creating different communities within a country on a large scale. Despite the very best efforts, these so often become permanent points of tension, resentment and instability, with inter-communal conflict so easily whipped up by radicals on all sides. We have seen this in the US, Europe, Latin America and many other parts of the world in recent decades. Concerns about migration have led many otherwise moderate, tolerant and fair minded people to vote for more and more extreme right-wing anti-immigration parties. This in turn has created further tensions. The democratic norms in previously long stable democracies have been dangerously undermined by the unscrupulous populist leaders of such parties.
Instead of being wide open to economic migration, and relying on cheap overseas labour, nations should be looking to fill gaps in their labour market by educating, training and developing the skills of their own population (Arise Manifesto, pg 183). They also need to provide much better salaries and working conditions, to attract domestic workers (Arise Manifesto, pg 143 – 144).
None of this means that developed nations have no fundamental moral obligation to economic migrants, they absolutely do. This should be outworked through their global policies. Developed countries should be providing generous, good quality aid, focused exclusively on poverty relief, at least at the internationally agreed level of 0.7% of gross domestic product, to help tackle the desperate poverty that drives so much economic migration in the first place (Arise Manifesto, pg 199 – 204). Even more importantly, in their foreign policies they should support efforts to reduce and end conflict; the struggle for democratic and human rights reform in countries (Arise Manifesto, pg 119 – 124); efforts to reduce poverty and support developing nations to boost their economies (Arise Manifesto, pg 190 – 194); and efforts to help developing nations address the global environmental crises (Arise Manifesto, pg 257 – 259). Such efforts are the quickest way to tackle the root causes of injustice, conflict, poverty and environmental crisis, which drive mass economic migration.
So, whether it is refugees, asylum seekers, economic migrants or underpaid workers in their own country, there are multiple steps that governments can take to tackle the challenges of asylum and migration and support all these groups, steps that are based on a Christian approach of compassion and love for all.
Find out more
Find out more about how governments can address issues of asylum and migration in the Arise Manifesto. This report is Arise’s big picture, researched, Biblical, holistic and practical vision for a better world. It looks at what the Bible says, and what we can learn from the best data and the world’s leading experts on the five major areas of evangelism, discipleship, social justice, development and the environment. It then draws these lessons together into a practical road map for the changes we need to see in our world, which the Arise movement campaigns to achieve.
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[1] UK to fund migrant detention centre in France, Sunak says, BBC, (10 Mar 2023), https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-64914564
[2] Three-quarters of UK companies hit by labour shortages in last 12 months, CBI, (11 Oct 2022), https://www.cbi.org.uk/media-centre/articles/three-quarters-of-uk-companies-hit-by-labour-shortages-in-last-12-months-cbipertemps/
[3] EU migration has plummeted since Brexit, New Statesman, (15 Aug 2022), https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/brexit/2022/08/eu-migration-has-plummeted-since-brexit
[4] UK Net Migration Rate, 1950 – 2022, Macrotrends, https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/GBR/united-kingdom/net-migration#:~:text=The%20current%20net%20migration%20rate,a%209.28%25%20decline%20from%202019