This week at the Conservative party conference home secretary Amber Rudd said that UK companies would have to publish lists of non-British workers (though Whitehall now says these will be kept ‘secret’).
The Prime Minister Theresa May derided those who subscribe to a cosmopolitan identity as “citizens of nowhere” and has suggested that foreign doctors would only be able to stay in the NHS until “home grown” replacements could be trained.
Foreign nationals make an enormous contribution to this county’s culture, economy, and society. They have long helped to shape its common heritage and identity. They are not a separate caste in our society – they are our friends, partners, colleagues, neighbours and so much more besides. A country robbed of these people is a poorer country in every sense: they are a part of who we are.
We therefore call upon the UK government to put a stop to this rhetoric and abandon policies which are premised on dividing workplaces and communities based on where people were born.
By choosing race and ethnicity as the marker of who belongs and who does not, the UK government is indulging in xenophobia. As the children and grandchildren of those who fought fascism, we have a duty, in defence of our shared humanity, to resist state sanctioned discrimination based on nationality and to condemn policies that seek to restrict the rights and freedoms of citizenship to those who subscribe to an exclusive ethnic or national identity.
We call on Theresa May and Amber Rudd to retract their bitter, racist and divisive language. And we call on all of those who support an open, tolerant and inclusive vision of our country to join together, in solidarity, to oppose the actions of this government over the past week.
(You can sign here)
Catherine Mills says
Like many, I have colleagues who are not UK nationals, they were recruited because they were the best people for the job. I am proud to work alongside people from UK, EU and the wider world and am deeply ashamed that my Government could propose something as illiberal as listing the numbers of my colleagues from abroad. I celebrate the diversity of our country and would like to think that my Government can too
Ian Slater says
I am appalled by the combination of extreme xenophobia and authoritarianism being shown by this new government. The EU referendum was advisory only, and the lies of Leave campaign leaders were decisive. Parliament must decide. I am a citizen of the EU and the world.