Restrictive conditions have made it harder for those legally resident to commit to British society
Since the introduction of the concept by then-Labour home secretary Roy Jenkins in the mid-1960s, integration has never been a priority for UK governments. The anti-racist movement and black communities have been suspicious of the term, seeing it as too close to assimilation.
Integration has had little traction on the right either, where there has been distrust for any accommodation with migrants and minorities. Labour started talking about integration under Blair, but usually as a footnote to cohesion or in relation to refugees.
The Coalition government launched an integration strategy in 2012, but it mainly argued that national government needed to leave it to local governments.
In a time when net migration remains high and has transformed the demographic profile of every region of the UK, when we see persistent gaps in health or employment outcomes for some ethnic groups, when concerns about de facto segregation continue, and when politicians talk about particular minorities ‘quietly condoning’ non-British values – is it time to put integration back on the policy agenda?
The 2015 edition of MIPEX, the Migrant Integration Policy Index, is published today. It measures policy commitment to integration in 38 developed countries.
The timing of this might help us re-frame the integration debate in the UK. The last edition of the index was published in 2010, in the final months of the Brown government, so the new edition offers a timely assessment of the changes made in the Cameron/Clegg half-decade.
The headline is that the UK has fallen from the top 10 to mid-table 15. We have dropped points in areas where we perform strongly, such as education and anti-discrimination, because of austerity-driven cuts.
While there are schools across the country being confronted for the first time with children who don’t speak English at home, the funding which supports them to do this (the EMAG grant) is no longer ring-fenced.
While the gap between mainstream and minority employment is bigger than ever, the requirements to enforce equality law are being loosened and seen as excess red tape.
We have lost points too for the indicators relating to routes to settlement and to citizenship, as restrictive conditions brought in to help meet the net migration target have made it harder for those legally resident to commit to British society.
Most dramatically, we have fallen to the very bottom of the table for family migration, meaning we are the hardest place in the developed world for separated families to reunite; we have the most restrictive definitions and stringent requirements, long delays and high costs.
Separated non-European families are now less likely to reunite in the UK than on average in Western Europe, with numbers falling by 20 per cent after the UK imposed one of the highest income requirements for family reunion in the world, one which 50 per cent of working people in the UK could not afford.
The MIPEX index does not measure integration itself. It measures how favourable a country’s policies are to the level playing field that would make integration possible.
This approach has limits, and a resetting of the integration debate would need to look at other measures too: how social integration and a shared sense of belonging can be promoted, for instance.
But the results of the new index show just how far integration has fallen down the policy agenda in the drive to reduce migration and cut costs. Can we afford to let it keep slipping?
Ben Gidley is a senior researcher at COMPAS. Follow him on Twitter
36 Responses to “It’s time to put integration back on the agenda”
stevep
I know there are problems, there always are where migrants enter other cultures.
No one seems to mention the huge amount of British migrants living in Spain, France, Italy, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc. who have chosen to move there for a better climate, to work, to retire or because they enjoy living in a perceived better society.
stevep
I could, if I wanted, find loads more articles by different people that say the same thing.
but it`s a waste of my time for there is a true maxim that says: “There are none so blind than those that will not see”.
I agree with you about cheap labour. It is not a new phenomenon.
Most empires throughout history were and are built on either indentured or wage slavery.
Cheap labour whether local or foreign has always been required to ensure profits for the wealthy since Capitalism became an economic and political regime. That`s why the left argue for change, for fairness, to end exploitation.
It`s the measure of the success of the right that they have been able to brainwash so many people otherwise.
So many people fooled.
Maybe Labour deliberately encouraged immigration to alter the demographics of the UK and widen the gene pool.
gunnerbear
And for every article that you’re happy with, I reckon I’d easily find statistics that disprove your contentions. 🙂
damon
Actually, people do mention Brits moving abroad all the time.
We really don’t have the equivalent of impoverished migrants moving for a far higher standard of living, and being carried somewhat by the new society.
There was a time when there were a lot of British builders in Germany. I even went for a while myself in the 1990s.
One point might be that these movements are somewhat reciprocal, and we went there and they came here, on an equal playing field so to speak.
And as far as I’m aware, there hasn’t ever been the equivalent of the Brixton and Toxteth riots caused by Brits migrating. My ”community” the Irish got a bit of a reputation for likingna drink and a punch up, but were appreciated as hard working people also.
Not always of course. But what are the hardest jobs in British policing today?
Probably the Islamic terrorism problem followed by policing the black community.
Just read about Operation Tridant to see how much police resources that takes up.
And how sensitive it is. Get it wrong, or get an incident like Mark Duggan, and you’ve got murderous riots on your hands.
I know I’m painting the bad picture here, but that’s just to counter your more rosy view.
Mass immigration from third world countries makes really difficult problems in society.
There are also plenty of areas where it’s a success and works well also.
But it’s very much a mixed bag. My problem with liberals and leftists is that they always seem to deny the problems that we have.
They even start calling Ukip ”fascists” etc.
I just looked up the Hope not Hate website and there are about four articles about Ukip, as if they were seen as a far right party and a bunch of racists.
That article by Gary Younge that I did a link to shows just how hard things get in a multicultural society. It seems as divided and sectarian as anything in Northern Ireland.
With people at times hardly able to share the same park space where their children play, so bitter are the feelings about race and racism.
So my point is, why isn’t it OK for newly democratic European countries that don’t have a history of African and Asian immigrants coming to their country to feel rather dubious about throwing open their borders in the way that western European countries did since the 1960s?
Or that many countries are rather reluctant to take in large numbers of the present migrants coming accross from Africa and Asia?
madasafish
European immigrants to the UK have paid more in taxes than they received in benefits,”
Is not the same as:
“Most migrants come to Britain to work and pay taxes. they are net contributors to our economy. Fact.”
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