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Immigration
[Mr. Raison.]
4 DECEMBER 1979
of applications in the pipeline shows that the pressure remains unabated. At the end of October there were about 6,000 husbands and fiances in the Sub-Con- tinent queues.
Therefore, there is a real pressure to come in here. As a result, our belief that this is one of the ways of controlling immigration and of removing numbers, not in spectacular quantities but in real quantities, is, I believe, justified. In addition, as the House knows, we have a particular aim, which is to cut back on primary male immigration. What do we mean by primary male immigration? What is the difference between that and the immigration of women? That was a question asked by the hon. Member for Halifax (Dr. Summerskill).
There is a significant difference, apart from the sex difference, because it is generally true that the young man seeking to come to the United Kingdom for the purpose of marriage is economically motivated. The reason why women come here is not primarily economic but so that they can build a family. It would
be fair to say that the attitude of the two sexes in this respect-if I am allowed to say it nowadays-is different. That cer- tainly underlies our approach to this
matter.
Dr. Hampson: Surely my hon. Friend must accept, in view of the figures he sent to me in a parliamentary answer, that three times as many females from the Indian Sub-Continent arrive in this country as males. Those women go to the highly populated and industrialised centres and produce children, many of whom are males who enter the labour force.
Mr. Raison: I accept that fact, which is well known. However. I see nothing discreditable about our willingness, over the years, to admit wives and children. It is morally right, and the fact that it is a statutory requirement is inescapable. I have already said that there are elements of discrimination in our present law, but much greater hardship would be entailed if we said that we would not admit wives and children than is contained in the de- cision we are putting forward today.
Dr. Summerskill: This is a very im- portant point. Why is it morally right
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to allow in wives but not morally right to allow in husbands?
Mr. Raison: I have already tried to meet that point by saying that I believe that there is a difference between the migration of young men, whose motiva- tion is primarily economic, and the migra- tion of women who come here to build
up their families. I do not know whether
the hon. Member for Halifax wishes us to change our attitude towards women and children. I hope that she does not. But there is a difference and there are practical consequences.
I have no doubt that marriage is used as a means of securing entry. What we are concerned about is not what might be called the normal to-and-fro move- ment by which young people may meet, marry and seek to live in the country of one or the other; we are talking of a pre- dominantly one-way traffic. From my
recent visit to the Indian Sub-Continent I know that that happens. I have heard, on a number of occasions, young men who were seeking to come to the United Kingdom for the purpose of marriage openly and frankly say that their objec- tive was economic. They have said that the reason they wish to marry somebody whom they have never met and about whom they know very little is that it is the only way in which they can secure entry into the United Kingdom. There is absolutely no doubt about that. Opposition Member who doubts that should go to the Indian Sub-Continent and listen to some of the interviews that take place.
we
Any
I should also make it quite clear that are not talking about the bogus marriage of convenience. We have said this over and over again, in spite of which the hon. Member for Halifax still did not seem to understand. The right hon. Member for Leeds, South tried to deal with this matter through his change in the rules in 1977. As a result of that a few hundred marriages a year are be- ing caught.
Mr. Stanley Cohen (Leeds, South- East) rose-
Mr. Speaker: Order. The Minister is not giving way; therefore, the hon. Gen- tleman must resume his seat.
Mr. Raison: We are not talking about the marriage of convenience that takes
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Immigr
place purely to se collapses. That is present rules, if so We are talking abou last but are merely immigration. This! and the question tha how to deal with it.
In our manifesto back to the 1969-7 problem. Broadly th of blocking the lot. felt that this was n For one thing, the which was an ingred and which meant th to live abroad if it dard of living, was n current circumstance we had to face the it is unacceptable girls who marry men living here. Ther throughout the cou view has been put and we have had to
The same applies have been born overs right hon. Friend ha he understands this that he proposes to to ensure that these British-born in this one of their parents i and Colonies citizen My right hon. Friend anxieties that exist o not continue, because to meet the problem that others will hav under discretion, be to shape the rules. of daughters of Crow men,and so on, will pathetically.
The point has been tinction between the United Kingdom and born here and those seas but are registe citizens of the Uni Colonies. In putting posals we are recogni those who have alway connection with this c it as their country of to bring in their hus that all citizens of th
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