Should we have a government department specifically for migration? Proposals presented here reflect a need to change the values impeding inward migration, and place value upon internal migration. The principles used here are derived from organisations which support liberal migration policies, such as the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, the Green Party of England and Wales and the Refugee Council.
A dedicated, specialist department outside the Home Office
A department for migration could deal with several key issues affecting the UK today, beginning with assisting re-location to less populated/less prosperous parts of the country. Promotion by local councils can encourage former residents of some areas to return to them as part of regeneration. Places with low rates of incomers and more empty homes may well offer cheaper housing, helping to provide returning former residents with resources.
Such a department could also facilitate the movement of international migrants towards locations in the UK most in need of workers and added local spending power. This might also alleviate – over decades – problems of communities with constant high pressures of all kinds in the wealthiest places in the UK, with highest living costs, by encouraging movement. Asylum seekers should be allowed to work on arrival in the UK, unless there are specific reasons why their presence in the UK could be questionable, within a 72-hour period.
Assisting UK residents to migrate to other countries could result in flows of funds back to their families in the UK, so it’s not necessarily a ‘loss’ to the country. Advising on best options among democracies could be a minor but constructive role for a new department for migration.
UK migration: recent events
Despite increases in net migration to the UK in recent years, skills shortages remain. The new government has launched Skills England in an attempt to address this over the next decade. Care workers remain in demand. Despite skills shortages, the number of payrolled employees who are foreign nationals has increased from 4.02 million in March 2016, to 4.75 million in December 2019, and to 5.44 million in December 2022.
These figures cover the post-Brexit period. They reflect a decline in EU citizens working in the UK, the Covid pandemic, and the period of Long Covid creating prolonged economic inactivity for about 2 million people, at its peak. All long-term sick people number about 2.5 million in the latest figures. Recently, the numbers of people applying to work or study in the UK fell by over one third, perhaps reflecting restrictions placed by the Conservative government. The image of a less internationalist, or welcoming, country may not be helping.
The awful conditions awaiting people in asylum hotels in Britain are not necessarily known to those seeking asylum and may not act as a deterrent. Also, events surrounding the re-opening of detention centres like the unlamented Campsfield House near Kidlington in Oxfordshire, which was shut back in 2018, illustrate that there can be strong local opposition to such a facility.
Very high charges made by the Home Office remain in place for migrants. Colin Yeo’s Welcome to Britain captures the prevailing charges and associated conditions of the last few years. Two parliamentary groups have drawn attention to the strong connections between the UK’s immigration, asylum and refugee policies and extreme poverty. Apart from the ending of the costly Rwanda mess, and imminent closure of the Bibby Stockholm barge, this situation has been largely unchanged by the new government, attracting condemnation by more than 80 organisations.
Altering the rhetoric
The number of people waiting for decisions on asylum applications remains large: 118.882 at the end of June 2024. Of these people, 76,268 have been waiting more than six months. They could have been working. But this opportunity is likely to be missed since the government is allocating more staff and resources for deportations. It has been condemned by Amnesty International for doing so.
The government effort has included allocating £15mn towards deportation deals with 11 countries. Nesrine Malik has offered a succinct challenge to the myth of opposition to immigration in this country which still dominates government and the Home Office, and those who recently engaged in rioting. The Refugee Council has called upon Labour to challenge Tory rhetoric and stop emphasising deportations, preferring instead the language of ‘compassion and humanity’.
Supporting internal migration
Internal migration is a normal feature of the UK. A department for migration should link to local government websites and through them to local employment opportunities, information about local housing costs and access to services. This can serve internal migrants, and explicitly encourage people who wish to return to working/retiring in their original hometown/area. This can also benefit international migrants and assist in making use of housing and facilities in areas of low or negative population growth and low current housing costs. The arrival of additional residents will contribute to spending and local taxation in local economies and help to lift poorer communities towards regeneration and redevelopment.
If the government wants to develop a more holistic and long-term approach to adaptation to climate change, it might favour a department for migration assisting communities at risk from sea level rise and stronger storms to move to more secure locations. This would have to be done sensitively, with no taint of compulsion, and through involving local communities and their elected representatives. Actions should be guided by the projected next 150 years of climate change, at least.
Looking at the recent history of internal migration, during 2009-2015, about 52% of internal migrants were aged 16-30, and 22% of the total movers were 16-21 – suggesting moving for education or employment. In 2011, 27% of people above the age of 16 had a degree; among movers the percentage was 38%. Internal migration between regions is about 1 million people per year. Whether enhanced rights to remote working and to flexitime might diminish some of this movement is unclear; moving from an area with cheaper housing to one’s employment location which has higher housing costs might well not occur where remote/flexible working applies. Breakdowns in relationships can also motivate moves, as can the need to care for relatives.
Covid impacted the mobility of the population and created a revolutionary expansion in remote working. Rates of internal migration fell during the pandemic and fluctuated according to the impacts of lockdowns. From about autumn of 2021, despite continuing Covid, internal migration began to return to pre-Covid levels.
Strengthening local government: bringing back the community programme
I worked in Canterbury City Council’s community programme, mainly as assistant manager, during 1984-1985. Renewing this scheme for the longer-term unemployed could include creating local employment and training in each council/Unitary area with work for local NGOs/charities for indefinite periods. This can be linked to an expansion of the economic role of these councils. Facilitating formation of cooperatives, including by merging existing enterprises, could help share scarce capital and skills. Regeneration and redevelopment to improve lowest incomes could be generalised to each local council area.
Population and migration
It may be assumed by some that large increases in the global population, and worsening climate change, will drive more migration to safer and/or wealthier areas. However, though the global population has not peaked yet, birth rates are in free fall. Most countries have birth rates below replacement level (the level at which population size remains constant).
Far from continuing growth, trends suggest a peaking of the global population in the mid-2080s at c10.3 billion compared to the c8.2 billion today, and then decline. By 2100, 97% of countries will have birth rates below replacement level, leaving only an estimated six states with higher birth rates. This does suggest a downward trend in the global population, one which many countries determined to raise birth rates have failed to change. The UK birth rate continues to decline. The 2022 birth rate per woman was at 1.49.
The transformation needed
A department for migration should take all visa and asylum applications and processing functions away from the existing Home Office. Recruitment for this department should be made from people with experience working with migrants – in both employed and voluntary capacities – and in human rights similarly. Minimum income requirements for migrants should be abolished.
Some restrictions should remain, related to factors such as criminal records or perceived threats to national security. Access to employment, the NHS and education should apply on arrival if sought. People arriving without visas should get immediate visitors’ visas and be allowed to change status while remaining in the UK. Residents with visas or who are undocumented may apply for citizenship after five years in the UK.
A key implication of this idea is that rejoining the EU would help with flows of skills, and would mean EU resources going into the UK’s poorest regions. In short, rejoining could allow a department for migration to reach its maximum conceivable level of effectiveness.
More from Steve Dawe
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