Press Story

A new IPPR study into diversity in multi-ethnic Britain, being launched at a conference on Monday 2nd November, highlights new ways that the UK can better integrate newly-arrived communities and ease local tensions.

The recent election victory for Canada’s Liberal Party provides lessons to how Britain could integrate migrants and help create a cohesive society.

The report, called Trajectory And Transience: Understanding and addressing the pressures of migration on communities, suggests local councils should be actively involved in the design of citizenship tests to include information about community life and local activities as part of the citizenship process, and hold widely advertised and public citizenship ceremonies.

The report will be launched at a conference entitled Diverse or Divided? at Canada House in London. Speakers include Monte Solberg, former Canadian minister for citizenship and immigration; Stella Creasy MP and Suella Fernandes MP; Mary Riddell and Tim Stanley of the Daily Telegraph; Stephen Bush of the New Statesman; and DJ Nihal from BBC’s Asian Network.

Recommendations in the report include:

• The Government should bring in a Controlling Migration Fund, as promised in their manifesto, targeted at transition areas that have seen localised high migration in recent years. This would help local authorities pre-empt and alleviate pressure on public services and integrate migrants into areas.

• Local authorities should consult local residents on developing Action Plans to positively engage the local population, plan services and encourage community cohesion.

• Universities should also play an active role by helping to support international students with applications and processes related to post-study visas and by encouraging them to stay in the local area after completing their studies, for example, by setting up programmes that match international students with sectors of the local economy affected by skills shortages.

We can also learn much from Canada, where they currently offer free passes to their national parks to all new citizens, an idea that could be adapted to Britain. Another idea, being proposed by the newly-elected Liberal Government in Canada, is to bring in credits to incentivise and integrate international students.

The report says ‘naturalisation’ is a critical in the integration process because migrants are more likely to lay down roots and become actively involved in the community. But Britain's naturalisation fees (£1,000) are over three times the amount of Canada (£313).

Phoebe Griffith, IPPR’s Associate Director for Migration, Integration and Communities, said:

"Opinion polls consistently show the majority of the public have fears about large unplanned immigration and politicians frequently respond with ever-tougher measures and rhetoric. This is getting us nowhere fast. We desperately need a new approach, which recognises the need to integrate migrants, rather than hoping the issue will go away.

“What Canada shows us is that more effort spent trying to make active citizens out of migrants pays dividends. We think that national and local Government, universities and established communities all have roles to play in making newly arrived immigrants feel at home and want to participate fully in local community life.”

Contacts:

Danny Wright – d.wright@ippr.org 07887 422 789

Sofie Jenkinson – s.jenkinson@ippr.org 07981 023 031

Lester Holloway – l.holloway@ippr.org 07585 772 633

Notes to Editors

Diverse or Divided? is a one-day conference bringing together leading policy-makers, politicians and thinkers from Canada and Britain at Canada House in London to debate some of the major political and policy dilemmas for diverse societies. For more details: http://www.ippr.org/events/diverse-or-divided

The report assesses four towns in the UK on how the settled community and public services are coping with new migration. It identifies transience – migrants moving from one town to another – as the single biggest cause of tensions, and recommends ways Government can better plan for change.

Trajectory And Transience: Understanding and addressing the pressures of migration on communities looked at multi-ethnic diversity in several areas of Britain..

IPPR's report last year 'Shared ground: Strategies for living well together in an era of high immigration' explored how to support migrants and British people to live well together. We argue for a more coherent integration strategy in areas characterised by increasing diversity and ongoing, high inflows of immigration. For more information: http://www.ippr.org/publications/shared-ground