Not for the first time, David Cameron has been to Southall to applaud enforcement officers for trying to crack down on illegal immigration. Not for the first time, the numbers suggest that all efforts are failing. Last year net inward migration to the UK reached 318,000, the highest in any calendar year since records began. The annual increase was close to 100,000 and 70,000 more people than last year came looking for work. Mr Cameron’s notional net migration maximum of 100,000 a year is receding in the nation’s rear-view mirror. There is no plausible way to get back there short of throwing the economy into reverse, and yet 100,000 remains his goal.
This is foolish. Low-wage migrant numbers must be brought under control because at