Immigration Follow

Last week’s column argued that mass immigration is intimately connected to the growth of capitalism.

Recent reports have shown the contradictions that immigration raises for our rulers.

At the recent inauguration of a Moscow memorial to the victims of the gulag Nicolas Sarkozy made a fervent speech about the importance of human rights, underlining the necessity of interaction between authorities and population.

"If you don't know who employs you, you can lose your job at any time," said a Polish hotel worker. "I feel this insecurity about my future in England. There are no rules here."

If anyone thought that Margaret Hodge's recent jibes against immigrants were a one-off, a series of pronouncements last week by senior New Labour figures should tell you which way the wind is blowing.

‘It started with informal discussions – we decided something should be done to organise among migrant workers in the south coast region.

"We don't get paid wages here," said a waiter at Chinatown's Furama Restaurant. "We only have tips of around £200 a week. The service charge goes to the employer. We don't get a penny."

BBC Radio 4 last week accused a leading supplier of fair trade bananas to major supermarkets of exploiting Eastern European migrant workers.

A hunger strike and protest by women detained at Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre in Bedfordshire has highlighted ongoing problems at the centre and new ones with Serco, the company that has run it since April.

Thousands of migrant workers and their supporters rallied in Trafalgar Square, London, on Monday to demand that the government regularises the status of undocumented workers in Britain.

Manchester's May Day march and rally on Monday 7 May brought trade unionists together with refugee and asylum led organisations and community groups.

New government plans will remove the already pitiful rights of some of the most vulnerable migrant workers in Britain. Investigative journalist Hsiao-Hung Pai talks to the women who have travelled across the globe to look after the homes and children of the rich