‘Immigration harms British workers. We must restrict immigration to improve working-class lives.” That is the subtext – and often the explicit text – of the argument from those who are hostile to immigration or wish drastically to reduce numbers. It is an argument that has been given sharper focus by the riots in which much anger was vented towards immigrants and asylum seekers, and the majority of which took place in the most deprived regions of England.

I want to set aside the issue of whether immigration harms British workers, or, more pertinently, in what context such a claim may be true, and ask instead a different question. What other policies might we – or should we – expect critics of immigration to endorse if they are genuine in their belief that their aim is to defend working-class interests?

There is perhaps nothing that more serves working-class interests than their capacity collectively to organise. As individuals, workers possess little power, while employers have myriad ways of imposing their will on their workforce, from cutting wages and enforcing redundancies to withdrawing investment and calling on the state to police workers’ actions. Any power that workers possess comes primarily from their ability to act collectively, through trade unions and other labour movement organisations, and to collectively withdraw their labour – to go on strike. Many studies show the importance of unionisation in raising wages, improving conditions and reducing inequality.

Over the past half century, a succession of governments, beginning with Margaret Thatcher’s, have introduced a parade of laws to restrict the right to unionise and take collective........

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