Obtaining British citizenship for immigrants who have worked in the UK for at least seven years, speak the language well, are integrated in the community, have no criminal record and can produce good references: that is the objective of the campaign “From foreigners to citizens”, launched by Telco, an alliance of churches and lay associations sponsored by the Catholic Primate of England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor. In a video message broadcast during the campaign launch, held in London in recent days in the presence of Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Timms and the London minister Jim Fitzpatrick, Murphy-O’Connor recalled that the Catholic Church actively supports immigrants’ rights. There are at least 570,000 irregular immigrants in London and most of them do not get even the minimum wage of 7.05 pounds per hour, approximately 10 euro, nor can they claim it since they are working in the black economy. According to Telco, “many employers would support the granting of citizenship to immigrants, so long as they are skilled”. “Many irregular immigrants have jobs and families and send their children to school – declared the leader of TELCO Adewale Adenekan -; they are not alcoholics, criminals or thieves, but are forced to live on the edge of illegality”.
