The Guardian: “Theresa May says she will make success of Brexit as prime minister”

Home Secretary Theresa May will be the next prime minister of the United Kingdom reportedly as early as Wednesday this week, bringing a fast resolution to the dramatic events surrounding last month’s “Brexit” vote to leave the European Union and the subsequent resignation of current Prime Minister David Cameron. May’s candidacy for prime minister is uncontested after Andrea Leadsom, Britain’s energy minister, dropped out of the race; Boris Johnson, former London mayor, declined to run; and Michael Gove, who with Johnson was a prominent proponent of the Leave Campaign, failed to attract enough support for the position.

The most pressing issue facing the incoming prime minister, of course, is overseeing the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union as part of the Brexit vote. In a statement, May says she would provide “strong, proven leadership to steer…through what will be difficult and uncertain economic and political times” and also to “negotiate the best deal for Britain in leaving the EU, and to forge a new role for ourselves in the world.”

While many voters have expressed regret for their Brexit votes after the sudden economic downturn that happened immediately post-Brexit referendum, May left no room for a second referendum, saying: “Brexit means Brexit, and we are going to make a success of it.” What success that might be is difficult to tell, as she has not released any specifics about how she will negotiate UK’s departure from the EU. May says that “her priority would be reclaiming greater power for Britain to control immigration, even if it meant sacrificing access to the Continent’s single market for goods and services.” As Home Secretary since 2005, Ms. May has overseen some controversial immigration initiatives and programs:

• One of her most controversial policies to drastically reduce immigration from outside the EU was a new rule barring British citizens from bringing their spouses or children into Britain unless they earned more than £18,600, no matter how much their non-British spouse earned. Critics say this law is causing families to be split apart. The law is being challenged in the UK Supreme Court;
• She also was responsible for the widely criticized “go home vans,” which drove around the country offering undocumented immigrants assistance in returning to their home countries. Plagued with hoax calls and texts and widely mocked, the program resulted in just 11 people leaving the country.

Despite all this, she says she will be a unifier and bring together a wide variety of people in the UK, saying “we need a strong, new positive vision for the future of our country, a vision of a country that works not for the privileged few but that works for everyone of us.”

The whirlwind of events culminating with this new prime minister without a general election—which was originally scheduled for 2020—has led some to call for a popular vote. Tim Farron, the head of the Liberal Democrats, is objecting to Ms. May’s becoming prime minister, saying on Twitter: “With @TheresaMay2016’s coronation we need an early General Election. The Tories now have no mandate. Britain deserves better than this.”

Marketplace: “Immigration a concern amid looming Brexit vote”

On June 23, the United Kingdom will hold a referendum—referred to as the “Brexit” vote—to decide whether Britain should leave or remain in the European Union (EU). The referendum comes after Prime Minister David Cameron bowed to pressure from his own Conservative MPs before his general election last year and said: "It is time for the British people to have their say. It is time to settle this European question in British politics."

Immigration is an important issue in the referendum, as the EU guarantees the free movement of people between the twenty-eight member countries. Many Brits are worried about the record influx of immigrants who have come to the UK. Last year, there was a net inflow into the UK of more than 330,000 immigrants with half of them from elsewhere in the EU. Elisa Padilla from Spain, who has lived in London for three years, is concerned about the EU referendum. “It is a bit scary,” she tells Marketplace, “because underneath it all, I feel there is some sort of rejection of immigrants. English people don’t want more people from abroad coming here.”

While some claim that immigrants are affecting public services like healthcare, education, and housing, Italian immigrant Daniela de Rosa, who runs an Anglo-Italian website, is surprised by the referendum. “I wouldn’t have believed when I moved to London eleven years ago that one day someone would question our staying in Britain—as Europeans,” de Rosa tells Marketplace.

Deporting the 2 million EU migrant workers already in the UK wouldn’t make economic sense since they pay more in taxes than they take from the government and many dispute their supposed drain on resources. Michal Zdunczyk, a printing equipment engineer from Poland, disputes the charge that EU migrants are putting Brits out of work. “We basically fill the gap where the British people will not accept those jobs for that kind of money,” Zdunczyk tells Marketplace.

Gisela Stuart, a Labour MP and Vote Leave chair, says that British people are feeling the strains of “uncontrolled migration” and should vote leave in order to take back control from the EU. “As an immigrant myself, I am conscious of benefits immigration brings to this country," she says in the Guardian. "I have been very clear that I would like to see the introduction of an Australian Points based system—something that would also serve to end the discrimination inherent in the current system. But the fact of the matter is that the democratically elected UK parliament is prevented from doing any such thing because of the EU’s obsession with open borders.”

Prime Minister David Cameron claims it would be “madness” to try to reduce the number of migrants to the UK by voting to leave the EU and Hilary Benn, the UK shadow foreign secretary, says that a vote to leave the EU will not put a stop to the high levels of immigration, as foreign workers are needed in the country. “Immigration into Britain will continue whether we stay or go, as the Leave Campaign have now admitted,” he says. “And anyone who thinks that voting leave will bring the numbers down significantly will in time be bitterly disappointed.”

While many view the Leave Campaign as anti-immigrant, support for Brexit comes from many unusual sources including many chefs and curry house owners, predominantly from Bangladesh, who want to leave the EU since they claim current immigration laws and EU-mandated salary requirements make it extremely difficult for them to hire the skilled workers for their restaurants. Four or five of Britain's 12,000 curry houses are closing their doors every week, says Oli Khan, vice president of the Bangladeshi Caterers Association. "It's not that we think Europeans shouldn't have a chance in Britain, it's just that we feel the country should choose who it needs, what kind of skills they need, so that industries like ours are not short handed," Khan tells CNN. Meanwhile, the rest of the EU waits nervously for the outcome.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron's Immigration Speech

A week after President Obama announced his executive actions on immigration reform, UK Prime Minister David Cameron made his own immigration speech, saying: "Immigration benefits Britain, but it needs to be controlled."

Citing the dramatic increase in immigration since 2004, Mr. Cameron proposed to "reduce the current exceptionally high level of migration from within the EU into the UK" by returning net migration to 1990s levels, when "proper immigration controls meant immigration was in the tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands."

To achieve this, he proposed to restrict time that EU-job seekers can legally stay in the UK to six months unless employment is found, change the alleged overly generous British welfare system so that those who claim benefits, tax credits, and child benefit must live and contribute for a minimum of four years, and increase residency requirements for social housing to four years.

Moreover, to decrease the level of undocumented and non-EU immigrants in the UK, Mr. Cameron pledged to continue to make "Britain a much harder place to exist as an illegal immigrant" by stopping undocumented immigrants from opening a bank account, obtaining a driver's license, and renting a home, as well as penalizing colleges who don't do enough to prevent foreign students from overstaying their visa.

Mr. Cameron made his self-admitted "radical" proposals after his failure to reduce immigration numbers, a promise he made before the 2010 election. 

Germany has warned that any attempt to stop the free movement of EU workers will not be tolerated, and Poland reacted with strong disapproval to Mr. Cameron's proposed four-year timeframe before foreign workers would be eligible for welfare benefits.

A Guardian editorial also criticized Mr. Cameron's use of the "stereotype of immigrant scroungers and its belief that unchecked immigration is one of the biggest problems facing Britain. This flies in the face of the evidence, which points to the fact that EU migrants put in more than they take out financially; that they use public services less than British citizens because many leave their families at home; and that the proportion of jobless EU migrants is tiny."

When it comes to the possibility of Britain leaving the EU if these issues cannot be resolved, Mr. Cameron said, "I rule nothing out." In the meantime as his immigration proposals are considered, Mr. Cameron wants to do more mentoring to help people with "'interview skills or CVs or just giving people a bit of confidence.'" Presumably, though, he does not mean immigrants since they have received "disproportionate numbers of jobs" in the UK.