Are... people of Anglo-Saxon background moving back to Germany & Denmark?

I agree it is worse but I find it infuriating thus recycling of decades-old theories and Labour policies from the Brown era, because I assume a Labour minister should know that both have failed

I do not think it makes economic sense either, it's still political signalling and getting the numbers down. But compared for example to the recent tory position it is about making some people disposable rather than kicking them out almost randomly right away

It boils down to '1) Reform are doing well in the polls 2) It means that a majority of the population will become automatically violent if migration goes above a certain limit 3) I am willing to be the person of colour to give a face to such claims'

Note that there is no discussion of how and whether actual migratory flows, social contact, or whatever else might be causing the division (or indeed what is the proof of such division). This is taking up the talking points of a political rival and turning it from complaints to legitimate points.

I assume it is a subset of A: making sure that more of the population is precarious and will leave if the job market and/or the treasury prefers so. But yes, it is a badly defined policy and includes some claims on integration which make little sense

Bonus point: governments that introduce hardline policies on migration should be treated as dumpers and subject to international pressure. Not only because they worsen/endanger the lives of migrants, but because they cause problems for other governments.

2) if the accounts of the Labour government policies being driven by professional electoral strategising are correct, I do not see the government reacting to nothing short of a clear electoral threat from the left.

Politically 1) as long as other governments keep talking about the 'Danish model', the defeat of Danish Social Democrats at the national elections next October (as they seem destined to do according to polls and local election results) becomes a progressive objective across Europe

Political signalling takes precedence over policy outcomes + encouragement to remigration (including to other safe countries) come to mind. Hostile environment explicitly targeted to most migrants and not just the undocumented.

In Italy local branches of the government managed to renege on permanent residences because the document had to be renewed and people who had become unemployed in the meanwhile were denied the renewal. But again not central policy and not a mass impact.

I remember some mass expulsions in West Africa (@bronwenmanby.bsky.social might know/remember more), but I think that was tolerated undocumented migrants, or people with temporary permits rather than permanent residents.

It was a bit more than that - it was a process of mass disenfranchisement in Estonia and Latvia (but not Lithuania) which left substantial stateless populations in the two countries. But as far as I know the deportations were limited.

Italy also had co-resident caregivers as a priority group in yearly migration quotas for a long time