Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley will use a panel debate on migration later today to urge other parties to “rally behind free movement”.
Bartley will argue that the leadership of other parties are not making the positive case for immigration and that that is dividing communities.
He will say that “to lose the gift of freedom of movement would be like losing a part of our identity as humans beings". Bartley will also say that other parties must “abandon their fixation with treating migrants as economic statistics” and talk instead about their worth as human beings.
Bartley will be speaking at a debate on the future of migration policy in Britain hosted by the consultancy PwC [1]. Also on the panel will be Anna Soubry MP and Labour peer Lord McConnell.
Bartley is expected to say:
“We have to stop thinking of migrants as economic numbers that will either benefit or hurt our economy. This fixation has to end. We need a new language for migration, one that focuses on migrants as people, fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, and friends.
“To move is to be human, it’s to be free but the Both Conservatives and Labour are surrendering that freedom. To lose the gift of freedom of movement would be like losing a part of our identity as humans beings. As of this day I want to see all progressives in all parties coming together to defend freedom of movement and to launch a wholesale defence of our right and the rights of others to travel.”
Notes:
1. 2.30pm – 5.30pm Migration Still Matters: Toward a new national consensus on migration. Embankment Place, London WC2N 6RH