Steve Ballinger: Time for a national conversation on immigration

DO we need to talk more about immigration? Some people think we talk about little else; others feel they're still not allowed to discuss it without being called racist.
A national conversation on immigration begins in Bradford today, an initiative inspired by the late Batley & Spen MP Jo Cox.A national conversation on immigration begins in Bradford today, an initiative inspired by the late Batley & Spen MP Jo Cox.
A national conversation on immigration begins in Bradford today, an initiative inspired by the late Batley & Spen MP Jo Cox.

Most people are somewhere in between – keen to keep racism and prejudice out of the debate, while still feeling that decision-makers could do more to listen to what they think about an issue that consistently ranks alongside the economy and the NHS as one that people most care about.

In response, the MPs of the House of Commons’ Home Affairs Committee, including Bradford MP Naz Shah, have launched a different kind of inquiry into immigration, one that will travel around the country, hearing what people have to say. A ‘National Conversation’, co-ordinated by independent think-tank British Future and anti-prejudice campaigners Hope Not Hate, will feed into the inquiry.

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This project will hold 120 meetings over the course of this year in 60 towns and cities. The first of those conversations takes place in Bradford today, with events in Hull, Sheffield, Barnsley and Harrogate to follow.

Migration has been part of Bradford’s DNA for over two centuries. Today, an estimated 16.2 per cent of Bradford’s population was born outside the UK, higher than the UK average (13.3 per cent) and higher than Leeds (11.1 per cent) or Sheffield (10.9 per cent). As a result Bradford is a young city, with one of the highest proportions of under 20s in the UK. Asylum-seekers have also been dispersed to Bradford for nearly 20 years, with Home Office statistics showing 794 asylum-seekers being supported in the city as of 30 September 2016. University students make up the majority of short-term migrants to the city.

Over the years, most of those who have come to the city have found a job, made new friends and brought up their families. While the city has accommodated these new arrivals, it has also faced some of the challenges of integration experienced by other northern towns and cities.

Community organisations have made great strides to build integration and support good community relations, working alongside the local council. But more needs to be done.

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The National Conversation has been made possible by funds raised by the public in memory of Jo Cox MP after her tragic murder last year. It offers a highly appropriate way to reflect her commitment to finding the common ground, as reflected in her final piece for The Yorkshire Post, six days before her death, about engaging with public concerns over immigration. People have different views on the issue, but by asking people to sit down together and have a civil conversation, we hope to find out what people can agree on.

That’s never been more important than it is now. Britain’s referendum decision to leave the EU is a reset moment for immigration policy. Free movement for EU workers looks likely to become a thing of the past. So immigration policy will have to change. The challenge for Theresa May’s government will be to find an immigration policy that remains open to the skills and workers that our economy needs while, crucially, rebuilding the trust and confidence of the public in the immigration that we have.

That loss of public confidence is not hard to understand or explain.

The 1997-2010 Labour governments did not anticipate the pace or scale of immigration that would result from the expansion of the European Union after 2004 – so did too little to prepare, plan or respond. The Conservative-led government came to office in 2010 pledging to slash net migration to the tens of thousands, but that promise was one they could not keep.

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To start rebuilding that trust, it’s time to ask people ‘what do you think should happen now?’ and for decision-makers to listen. The findings of the National Conversation will be published as part of the Home Affairs Committee inquiry into immigration, in a report that the Government has to then respond to.

We’ll be regularly updating and sharing the conversations as we travel around the country, including our report from Bradford, at www.nationalconversation.org.uk. Here you’ll also find an online survey so you can make your voice heard too. So we hope you’ll get involved. It’s up to all of us as citizens, whatever our opinion, to take part in this conversation if we want to have a say in shaping the immigration policy of the future.

Steve Ballinger is director of communications for British Future.