Zig Layton-Henry

The Political rights of migrant workers in Western Europe

The Challenge of Political Rights - Zig Layton-Henry The Absence of Rights - Catherine Wihtol de Wenden The Position of Illegal Migrant Workers Industrial Rights - Jan Vranken Civil Rights of Aliens - Tomas Hammar Immigrant Associations - Zig Layton-Henry Consultative Forms of Participation - Uwe Andersen Voting Rights - Jan Rath The Politics of Citizenship Acquisition - Gerard de Rham Conclusion

The Politics of Migration.

A reader in the International Library of Studies on Migration. Comprises a modest original introduction, plus 16 articles documenting and analysing the political impact and consequences of migration.

Introduction: Conservatism and Conservative Politics

Conservatism is a term whose usefulness is matched only by its capacity to confuse, distort and irritate.2 It is used as a term describing sets of political ideas, a particular tradition in the history of political thought emanating from the reaction to the ideas of the Enlightenment and the events of the French Revolution and associated particularly with the writings of Edmund Burke. It is also used to describe the political activity and ideas of those associated with groups or parties which proclaim themselves to be Conservative even though their ideas and actions may be far removed from the ideas and principles espoused in the tradition referred to above. Conservatism is also used to describe clusters of attitudes or ideas such as love and respect for authority, tradition, religion and nationalism. Frequently no attempt is made to separate conservative attitudes and actions, so that ‘temperamental’ conservatism may be used to describe the views, actions and even the style of life of individuals and groups.3 These various uses of the term are all widely employed and accepted by men in the street as well as by Conservatives and scholars. All have a common concern with the preservation of existing institutions and traditions, but this has not lessened the frequent ambiguity and confusion in the use of the term.4

Book Review: Immigration, Nationality and CitizenshipImmigration, Nationality and Citizenship. By JussSatvinder S.Mansell Publishing Ltd., 1993. Pp. 200. (c)

ZIG LAYTON-HENRY University ofWarwick This book provides an excellent introduction to the development, complexity; and contradictions ofBritish immigration control legislation. It is particularly valuable for students to be provided with a legal textbook which describes the intricacies ofimmigration legislation with such clarity and conciseness. Juss begins by examining the reasons for immigration controls and the ambivalences and paradoxes in public policies. He illustrates these with reference to three recent events: the deportation of Tamil refugees in 1989: the deportation of a Zairian school teacher in 1991 which resulted in the Home Secretary being found guilty of contempt of court: and the Asylum Bill of 1991-3. The author carefully puts contemporary immigration control legislation in its historical context and analyzes the development of immigration controls since the Aliens Act of 1905 and in particular the imposition of controls on New Commonwealth immigrants in the postwar period. He is not only concerned with explaining statutory legislation, but with showing how these laws are implemented in practice through discretionary administrative powers, unpublished Home Office roles and guidelines, and the various systems ofappeal. The book is concerned with how the political obsession with controlling immigration from the Third World has resulted in the failure of British politicians to develop a fair, rational and defensible immigration policy. Juss feels that legislation and administrative discretion have resulted in a complex, confusing and arbitrary system ofimmigration controls which disregards the needs ofthe British economy and fails to respect the cultural and individual rights of members of the resident ethnic minoritypopulations in Britain. It also frequently breaches the European Convention on Human Rights and so is liable to be overridden by the European Court ofJustice. In the future, the European Commission and the European Court are likely to play an increasingly important role in determining British immigration policy. This book is valuable in presenting a careful and critical way the legal processes surrounding immigration controls and in particular the limitations of the appeals system and the arbitrariness ofthe application ofthe immigration roles. Juss shows how these can have unforeseen and unhappy consequences for those who administer them aswell as those who are administered by them. juss is keen to recommend that the vagueness, arbitrariness and secretiveness of the immigration rules should be reformed and that the wide area of ministerial discretion should be reduced. Asthis review has indicated, the title ofthe book is somewhat misleading. Juss touches on Nationality and Citizenship legislation only in so faras it relates to immigration control. He is not concerned with contemporary debates on citizenship and nationality and how these concepts have been affected and modified by international migration. A more accurate but perhaps less marketable title would be Immigration Control in Britain: The Legal Framework and Ptocess.