What Clegg should have said about immigration

Immigration is still high on the political agenda. Clegg’s speech today focused on immigration control, in particular on undocumented migration. But the question of integration—what happens when migrants actually arrive—was passed over and it has been neglected by policymakers, both under past governments and the present coalition.

The coalition government has made a number of high-profile immigration policy changes in its efforts to meet the Conservatives’ pledge to reduce net migration, with policies aimed at cutting the numbers of skilled workers, overseas students and family migrants. There has been less focus on integration policy. But integration matters: to migrants themselves and to the communities where they live. The failures of integration—unemployment, educational underachievement, social and economic segregation—have the potential to damage society and increase costs to the public purse.

Many migrants integrate successfully at work and into their new neighbourhoods. But research shows that some groups are being left behind. Employment supports integration, as the workplace can provide an important opportunity for different groups to meet and mix. But employment rates for some migrant groups, particularly those who arrive as spouses or as refugees, have always been low. As long as this remains the case, integration is going to be an uphill struggle.

For some groups, there is worrying evidence that these inequalities may not lessen over time. New data show some children with migrant backgrounds doing well in school but others lagging behind. White British students perform slightly below the national average in GCSE exams, and children of Nigerian, Indian and Sri Lankan origin outperform their British counterparts. However, some groups, such as Portuguese and Yemeni students, are underachieving.

While integration often happens without intervention from the state, there is a role for policy, particularly with respect to groups and communities who are at risk of being left behind. So what does the government need to consider?

Past government integration policy has focused too heavily on symbolic issues of national identity. While these are important questions, they are far removed from the actual process of integration, which happens in everyday life. Policy should instead concentrate on removing the practical barriers to integration in the labour market, in education and in communities.

This said, the process of settlement and naturalisation provides a logical point in time to promote integration, and this can and should be linked to a wider policy agenda on citizenship. But current government policy is so dominated by ministers’ desire to meet their net migration target that they are promoting temporary migration at the expense of citizenship and integration.

Much greater thought needs to be given to the integration of migrants who come to the UK for short periods of time: almost all overseas students as well as many migrants from the new member states of the EU. For short-term EU migrants, reducing labour market segregation is one way of promoting integration. But EU migrants often possess the least fluency in English and may have little incentive to learn the language. We need a debate across Europe about our mutual responsibilities to learn the language of the countries in which we reside.

English language fluency is central to integration. It empowers migrants and enables them to deal with day-to-day life. It also facilitates communication with those who live around them. Despite increases in funding for English teaching at the turn of the century, the UK’s record in helping migrants learn English is chequered. We have not been successful in organising classes for migrants who work long hours or live in rural areas, for example.

Successful migrant integration does not require large amounts of public funding. Investment in English language teaching is necessary but it saves money in the long term. Integration policy needs leadership from the very top of politics, and that requires our politicians to be courageous enough to talk about integration, in all its complexity.