Over 40 Members of the British Parliament have signed a letter calling for the introduction of digital IDs in order to fight illegal migration, streamline public services and boost the economy. It is interesting, in the context of the current political climate in our United Kingdom, to see how the issue of illegal migration has become the first item on the agenda when it comes to discussing some form of digtial identity infrastructure. The Honourable Members say that a digital ID program could fight illegal immigration by tackling off-the-books employment which has been drawing migrants into the country, the MPs argue, and with some justification, given that the Mayors of Calais have been arguing for a decade that the UK should introduce identity cards as part of efforts to deter migrants gathering at the French port and attempting to cross the channel.
Right now, since we lack an identiy infrastructure, illegal immigrants simply buy fake documents. There are firms offering a full set of fraudulent documents for £5,000 or so. The illegal immigrants can then use the fake documents to make bogus applications to remain, or secure a job illegally. Thi sis not that difficult since most employers are not MI5-trained anti-counterfeit document detecting geniuses. Just to pick one random example from the newspapers here, an illegal immigrant from Algeria worked in a school for 20 years under a false name after using a bent Italian passport to pass the necessary checks.
(Now, you might well argue that in a country with heading towards nine million “economically inactive” people that if someone has been working, paying their taxes and staying out of trouble for 20 years than you should give them citizenship, but that’s a different issue.)
Snippings 