Is it possible to be left wing and support controlled immigration?

As the question states

The idea I get from those on the left is they all support mass uncontrolled immigration no matter the cost.

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Reply 1

silverbolt

of course you can be leftwing and support controlled immigration. Depending on your pov you'd fall centre left or centre right. Its not mutually exclusive

Reply 2

Gears265

Original post by silverbolt

of course you can be leftwing and support controlled immigration. Depending on your pov you'd fall centre left or centre right. Its not mutually exclusive

Forget the centre ground, I mean solely the left

Reply 3

United1892

Original post by Gears265

As the question states

The idea I get from those on the left is they all support mass uncontrolled immigration no matter the cost.

Yes.

Reply 4

parentlurker

Original post by Gears265

As the question states

.

Yes.

Reply 5

math42

Well I don't like to categorize myself too much but according to that political compass test I am certainly more overall left-wing than centre-left, and I'd say I support controlled immigration. Of course there has to be some control, it's about degree. I am not sure what method I would advocate though. Something like Australia's points-based system just seems a bit harsh to me, and the citizenship tests I've seen for UK are pretty silly. So maybe the issue is that it is clear control is needed, but any method we come up with seems flawed.

Reply 6

BBaggins

Of course it's possible. The mistake we all commit is that we try to categorize us according to books. That is ridiculous. Think about it. Sometime back a person who had nothing better to do thought " I'll classify political systems into groups" and he did so. Someone then thought who was a teacher " Hey, this fellow writes the same stuff as I am supposed to teach. Why don't I give a copy each to my students and tell them to go through it...It'll save me enough time to spend with my gf./bf. " He does that and the result is now history. There are no laws against what your political ideas are. What you think is right-the book is wrong.
Is there anything communist about the Chinese Government? The US and India are both democracies. So, why don't they have political ideas which are similar? How can there be anything like an "Islamic Democracy"?. The word itself is an oxymoron.

Trust this helps!

Reply 7

KimKallstrom

Yes.

Listen, back in the day the Labour Party used to be the anti-immigration party on the basis that over-saturating the labour (thereby damaging the earning capacity) of the working class obviously screws them over. They used to understand. So yes, it is entirely possibly to not only be left wing and for controlled immigration, but it's possible to be left wing and entirely anti-immigration.

Reply 8

silverbolt

Original post by Gears265

Forget the centre ground, I mean solely the left

Then yes you can. Look being in favour of controlled immigration does not make you a racist or anything like that.

Reply 9

TheSexyApple

The real question is if it is possible to be controlled immigration and left wing

Reply 10

balanced

you wouldn't agree with any party, but yes.

Reply 11

username878267

Pretty much sums up a large portion of ukippers who don't realise they're lefty.

Reply 12

TSRforum

Controlled immigration is a left-wing stance, never was right-wing. I would consider UKIP a centre party and the rest left-wing based on their some what libertarian values

Reply 13

cBay

BNP obviously support controlled immigration and could probably be considered centre-left economically (although there policies a real mish mash ranging from far left to far right economic ideas). Of course the lazy media brand them far right, but in reality they are just incredibly authoritarian which has little to do with economics. Their policies are rather reminiscent of the nazi's.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 14

jeremy1988

Yes, but most left-wing parties have chosen a pro-immigration stance, and most right-wing parties have chosen an anti-immigration stance. I could easily justify the opposite perspective, though.

Left-wing anti-immigration: "We should keep these people out of the country to preserve our quality of life, promote/preserve secular values, and reduce competition for living wages."

Right-wing pro-immigration: "We should let these people into the country to buy stuff, bring religious values back into public life, and take minimum wage for jobs that most people don't want to do anyway."

Their views could just as easily be reversed, because there is nothing inherently right-wing or left-wing about immigration issues. You could rationalise either view using right-wing or left-wing logic, if you really wanted to do so.

Reply 15

L i b

Hell, Keir Hardie hated immigration, as - in my experience - do loads of Labour voters.

Reply 16

i<3milkshake

Original post by Gears265

As the question states

The idea I get from those on the left is they all support mass uncontrolled immigration no matter the cost.

It is possible. I mean you can be right wing and against immigration, but also right wing but for it and be pro-business.

The left can be against mass immigration. However, the left in the UK at the moment is a running joke so it can't.

Reply 17

BigItch

Original post by Gears265

As the question states

The idea I get from those on the left is they all support mass uncontrolled immigration no matter the cost.

Yes. Believe it or not this accurately describes the BNP they are left of labour economically (pre Corbyn) and to the right of them immigration wise due to fascism.

Reply 18

redferry

Original post by Gears265

As the question states

The idea I get from those on the left is they all support mass uncontrolled immigration no matter the cost.

Uncontrolled immigration is actually a principle of the free market - ie the right (economically speaking)

You'll find a number of union bosses are very anti immigration and they are very much of the left.

Reply 19

Gears265

Original post by redferry

You are wrong. The free market is about free movement of Labour among other things. Free movement of persons is entirely different. I suggest you look into the EEC and EU, both have free movement but the former is Labour and so an entirely different system altogether.