Podcast: Immigration - who should control our borders?

Listen to the Battle of Ideas 2014 debate.

Immigration is a fraught political issue. Both opponents and supporters argue over wage levels, taxes and public services, but is immigration a purely economic question? It seems what drives the pro-immigration side is not so much freedom of movement, as the unsavoury connotations of anti-immigration sentiment. Is this a pro-immigration position or anti-masses sentiment? Is there a case for giving up on controlling borders altogether? Even if there is, shouldn’t this be a democratic decision taken a sovereign people? With much of the UK’s immigration policy determined by the EU, is the current debate missing the point?

Speakers

David Goodhart
chair, Demos’ Advisory Group; author, The British Dream

Philippe Legrain
visiting senior fellow, LSE’s European Institute; author, Immigrants: your country needs them and European Spring: Why Our Economies and Politics are in a Mess – and How to Put Them Right; former economic adviser to the President of the European Commission

Bruno Waterfield
Brussels correspondent, Daily Telegraph; co-author, No Means No

Steven Woolfe
UKIP Frontbench Spokesman on Migration and Financial Affairs Co-ordinator EFDD Group, EU ECON Committee

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