Skip to main content
Gifts from The Morning Star
Can we finally bust the myths about migration?
From misunderstanding the net gain made from foreign students to the need for workers to plug the gaps created by our ageing population, anti-immigration tropes need to be confronted, writes PAUL DONOVAN

THE national obsession with immigration in this country is often difficult to fathom.

The latest furore concerned net immigration figures of 745,000.

The throwing around of such figures is misleading, pulling together refugees, economic migrants, students and others in a headline figure that Daily Mail leader writers can then fulminate about.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Cartoon: JAB
Features / 9 August 2025
9 August 2025

Labour councillor PAUL DONOVAN wonders why the right-wing party gets so much more media attention than it seems to merit

DoT
Theatre review / 28 July 2025
28 July 2025

PAUL DONOVAN relishes the spectacle of a 1950s detective in pursuit of a 500-year-old murder mystery

People taking part in a national march for Palestine on Whitehall in central London, January 18, 2025
Features / 21 July 2025
21 July 2025

From Gaza protest bans to proscribing Palestine Action, political elites are showing a crisis of confidence as they abandon Roy Jenkins’s apologetic approach for Suella Braverman’s aggressive ‘hate march’ rhetoric, writes PAUL DONOVAN

next crisis
Book Review / 11 July 2025
11 July 2025

PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by a deep dive into contemporary social crises, that examines how they are manipulated by elites

Similar stories
Cartoon: Lewis
Features / 17 May 2025
17 May 2025

DIANE ABBOTT MP warns Starmer’s newly declared war on foreigners and scroungers won’t fix housing or services — only class struggle against austerity can do that, and defeat Farage in the process

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. Photo: Danny Lawson/PA Wire
Immigration / 24 April 2025
24 April 2025

The left must avoid shouting ‘racist’ and explain that the socialist alternative would benefit all 

ANGER GROWS: Protesters demonstrate in Dover against migrant
Features / 10 April 2025
10 April 2025
The left must confront both far-right bigotry and the undeniable problems the exploitation of migrant workers by the ruling class creates — but there are few lessons from the global left on how to strike this balance, laments NICK WRIGHT
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer leads a roundtable discussio
Editorial: / 31 March 2025
31 March 2025