I don’t think Sonia and I have a great deal of competition in the “monthly immigration law update podcast” niche, strangely, but all the attention on net migration has caused a few podcast series to turn their attention to immigration generally. There are three I’ve heard in the last couple of weeks to which I’d highly recommend listening.
Firstly, a fantastic episode on the history of immigration from the Aliens Act 1905 through the Commonwealth Immigrants Acts of the 1960s all the way to the present day. Tom McTague and Helen Thompson are incredibly erudite and a pleasure to listen to. I helped Tom with his prep for this in one of the most exhausting hour and half phone calls I’ve ever had, and he puts that material and much more to very good use.
Ayesha Hazarika and Sam Freedman are recording a podcast series asking whether the Labour Party is ready for government; do they pass ‘the power test’? One episode looks at the issue of immigration and the contemporary politics around the issue. They had no help from me on this — they didn’t need it — but it was nice to receive a shout out anyway.
This last one is dedicated to the “stop the boats” issue. Ailbhe Rea from Politico interviews a refugee, me and Tony Smith, former head of UK Border Force, and explores what the issues are, whether the boats really can be stopped and whether the Illegal Migration Bill is really going to have the impact the government claims.
