Nando Sigona | Lightnews

Nando Sigona @nandosigona.bsky.social · 1h

If Labour can’t answer that, then this isn’t a strategy.
It’s an inherited slogan (remember David Cameron's tens of thousands goal — and a shrinking vision of Britain.

Nando Sigona @nandosigona.bsky.social · 1h

What does a smaller number actually achieve?
How does it make the country fairer, stronger, or more prosperous?
What problem does it solve?

Nando Sigona @nandosigona.bsky.social · 1h

#Labour is embracing a #littleEngland mentality — and they don’t even seem to know why, or even care.
Reducing #netmigration is treated as if it were self-explanatory.
But it isn’t.

Nando Sigona @nandosigona.bsky.social · 1h

What worries me even more is to think: what is the destination if this is 'a step in the right direction'? Where does he think (or want) to be going

Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 12h

Fewer workers. Fewer international students. More people leaving.

A "step in the right direction" according to the PM.

Impossible to take PM/govt seriously on growth if they are deliberately reducing it (and making the fiscal position worse) *as a matter of policy*.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

UK net migration falls sharply with drop in arrivals for work and study

Provisional figures for net migration to the UK show levels dropped to 204,000 in the year to June 2025.

www.bbc.co.uk

Nando Sigona @nandosigona.bsky.social · 1h

www.blast-info.fr/articles/202...

Politique d'asile au Royaume-Uni : quand la gauche travailliste adopte les recettes de l'extrême droite

Le gouvernement travailliste britannique présente la réforme d’asile la plus dure depuis des décennies : statut temporaire renouvelable, suppression des aides, facilitation des expulsions, remise en c...

www.blast-info.fr

Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 12h

Fewer workers. Fewer international students. More people leaving.

A "step in the right direction" according to the PM.

Impossible to take PM/govt seriously on growth if they are deliberately reducing it (and making the fiscal position worse) *as a matter of policy*.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

UK net migration falls sharply with drop in arrivals for work and study

Provisional figures for net migration to the UK show levels dropped to 204,000 in the year to June 2025.

www.bbc.co.uk

Nando Sigona @nandosigona.bsky.social · 2d

Politics and practices of transborderism at the Mexico-US border, new book by Mitxy Mabel Meneses Gutierrez for @brisunipress.bsky.social Global #migration series.

Nando Sigona @nandosigona.bsky.social · 2d

Spoke to Greek newspaper @tovimagr.bsky.social about #UK asylum and immigration proposals and how they may impact non-citizens already in the UK
tovima.com/world/reforms-will-make-peoples-lives-miserable-academic-warns-as-uk-moves-toward-new-asylum-model/

Reforms Will ‘Make People's Lives Miserable’, Academic Warns, as UK Moves Toward New Asylum Model - tovima.com

Asylum debate shifts to the right – asylum seekers and refugees are being labelled as criminals

tovima.com

Nando Sigona @nandosigona.bsky.social · 4d

Flagging and counter-flagging, Romani and Irish flags join the Union Jack and St. George Cross in Oxford #flags

I-CLAIM Project @iclaimeu.bsky.social · 5d

@ilsevanliempt.bsky.social interviews professor Rhacel Parreñas on her new book The Trafficker Next Door: How Household Employers Exploit Domestic Workers.

I-CLAIM Project @iclaimeu.bsky.social · 5d

Stay tuned! The new episode of Mobility, Work and Rights podcast is out next week!
We have amazing guests joining our hosts: @ilsevanliempt.bsky.social and @nandosigona.bsky.social to talk about migrant domestic work.
Nando talks to professor Bridget Anderson, director of @mmbuob.bsky.social.

Bettina Struff #Woke #FBPE #FBPR #NHS #RejoinEU @bettinastruff.bsky.social · 5d

"The issue is not simply that the proposals are harsh, unethical or likely to be ineffective. They represent a deeper shift: redefining protection as a discretionary favour rather than a legal obligation."

Great article from @nandosigona.bsky.social

theconversation.com/asylum-is-no...

Asylum is not illegal migration – why the UK government shouldn’t conflate the two

The new proposals transform settlement into something that must be continually earned. The path has become longer, more conditional and far more easily disrupted.

theconversation.com

Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 6d

Implying that the "cause of our division" is too many care workers, as Mahmood does here, is both absurd and sinister.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 7d

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood made more explicit her argument that when ethnic minorities face racism, "we have no choice but to ask: what is the cause of our division"

Her answer is the level of net migration, 2019-23 causes racism. (She on Monday said it was caused by the scale of asylum)

Nando Sigona @nandosigona.bsky.social · 7d

There are some (small) cracks in the consensus within government, perhaps arguments can offer some help to those pushing for a different framing and policy.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 7d

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood made more explicit her argument that when ethnic minorities face racism, "we have no choice but to ask: what is the cause of our division"

Her answer is the level of net migration, 2019-23 causes racism. (She on Monday said it was caused by the scale of asylum)

Nando Sigona @nandosigona.bsky.social · 7d

Asylum is not "illegal migration"
Let's start from here theconversation.com/asylum-is-no...

Asylum is not illegal migration – why the UK government shouldn’t conflate the two

The new proposals transform settlement into something that must be continually earned. The path has become longer, more conditional and far more easily disrupted.

theconversation.com

Mike Slaven @mcslaven.bsky.social · 7d

Mahmood writes in today's paper on "earned settlement," which will move the goalposts for people here, about her parents from Pakistan who "became Brits."

As context, arriving pre-1973, her dad probably would've been granted settlement *immediately* and could register as a UK citizen after 5 years.

Text from a Home Office consultation period with a photo of Shabana Mahmood: "Foreword from the Home Secretary
The story of migration in Britain is the story of my
family,and many others like us. My father came here
in the early 1970s, and my mother a little less than a
decade later. Both came to seek a better life, and
they found one here in Britain. They became Brits
themselves, and Brummies too.
They brought up four children just as proud to be a
part of this country, and that great city, as them. This
is not just my story. It is the story of many of my constituents in Birmingham Ladywood. It
is the story of many millions more across this country. "

Nando Sigona @nandosigona.bsky.social · 7d

perhaps, but will people read these books? or are they going to ask AI to read them for them?

Nando Sigona @nandosigona.bsky.social · 7d

What if the very policies designed to prevent irregularity are the ones that keep producing it?

I try to answer these questions in this piece for @politicalquarterly.bsky.social drawing on this recently published @iclaimeu.bsky.social concept paper i-claim.eu/irregular-mi...

Irregular migration as an assemblage - I-CLAIM

Rethinking irregular migration: a new I-CLAIM paper questions the categories, narratives, and policies that sustain ‘irregularity’.

i-claim.eu

Nando Sigona @nandosigona.bsky.social · 7d

Across Europe, politicians promise to “stop illegal migration” as if it were a problem that comes from the outside.

What if irregular migration is not something that happens despite the system, but because of it?

#EUmigration #ShabanaMahmood

politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/how-eur...

How Europe’s Migration Rules Keep Creating the “Irregular Migrants” They Claim to Catch

What if irregular migration is not something that happens despite the system, but because of it?

politicalquarterly.org.uk

Political Quarterly @politicalquarterly.bsky.social · 9d

As Labour's hardline stance on immigration dominates the headlines, a Professor of International Migration asks: What if irregular migration is not something that happens despite the system, but because of it?

By @nandosigona.bsky.social

Read now: politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/how-eur...