Green Party Mayoral candidate Jenny Jones on Sunday praised the contribution of the Iberian-American community within London and pledged to ensure City Hall provided better support if she is elected Mayor in May.
The Assembly Member made the comments during a visit to Iberian-American community centres, including the Cathedral of Revival, promising to combat employers paying workers less than Minimum Wage and help ‘hidden communities’ gain recognition in the eyes of the authorities.
Jones said: "As a resident of Southwark I am lucky enough to live amongst a large, active and vibrant Iberian-American community.
"I’ve always been impressed with the way in which this community organises and provides support for its members both new and old, and organisations such as the Latin American Women’s Rights Service in Camberwell should be commended.
"On top of this I’ve always been pleased to see the role that the Iberian and Latin community plays in London as a whole, forming part of the fantastic diversity that makes the capital so irresistible to inhabit and visit."
Although London’s Iberian-American community has comparatively high employment rates (85%) and offers valuable experience as teachers, accountants, engineers and social workers, more than half is employed in low-skilled and low-paid jobs in cleaning, catering and hospitality services, despite and 11% are paid below the National Minimum Wage: a rate 10 times higher than the average for the UK population.
Jones said: "If the capital is to protect the sense of diversity that makes it so great, it is essential that all Londoners can afford to live here.
"We must combat illegally low and insubstantial wages and support the lowest paid among the Iberian-American community and elsewhere."
In response to the inadequacy of current systems of classification used by London authorities to monitor diversity in the capital, Jones has also pledged to expand the categories used for to help ensure ‘hidden communities’ are recognised.
The London Green Party has a history of supporting the lowest paid Londoners. The party estimates that £60 million extra has been paid to such workers since Green Assembly Members convinced City Hall to introduce a London Living Wage in 2004.
Jones is now campaigning for a 10: 1 pay ratio to be introduced at the Greater London Authority, ensuring that no employee is paid more than ten times the lowest salary, which it hopes will be expanded throughout the capital.
In 2008 Greens in the London Assembly supported migrant communities by successfully passing a motion concerning an amnesty for the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants currently residing in London. The motion supports an earned regularisation of suitable irregular migrants, many of whom live and work in London, which would allow those who have been in the UK for four years or more to be admitted to a two-year pathway to citizenship.
