Tag: Immigration
Theresa May has fundamentally misjudged the public mood on immigration
In Theresa May’s Conservative party conference speech she warned that high levels of immigration make it ‘impossible to build a cohesive society’ as it is ‘difficult for schools and hospitals and core infrastructure like housing and transport to cope’. Instead of framing migration as a threat to Britain’s cohesion, the Government should be proactive and […]
What would UK immigration policy look like after Brexit?
What impact would Britain leaving the EU have on UK immigration policy? Jonathan Portes writes that exiting the EU would not be a magic solution to immigration problems. For a start, the UK would have to accept an exit from the single market and make alternative plans. He argues that difficult policy questions would still remain, […]
Why immigration controls resemble apartheid in their adverse consequences for freedom
The attempt to control some people can all too quickly escalate into an effort that depends for success on controlling everyone, argues Chandran Kukathas in comparing immigration controls with South Africa’s notorious apartheid laws. Similar PostsBook Review | Refuge Beyond Reach: How Rich Democracies Repel Asylum Seekers by David Scott FitzGeraldWhy don’t immigrants vote more?Book […]
Our sterile quantitative debate on immigration needs to be humanised with stories and images
UK policy and political debate on immigration and asylum seekers has been increasingly driven by abstract, quantitative descriptors. What we need instead are stories and images of individuals in order to trigger empathy and concern, argues Christina Boswell. Similar PostsAn independent Scotland may find it impossible to pursue a more liberal immigration policyBook Review | […]
Attempts to dissuade potential migrants from coming to the UK are ineffective gimmickry
The UK has been criticised for its anti-humanitarian stance when it comes to the migrants camp in Calais, where conditions are appallingly bad. Defenders of the migrants point to the horrendous conditions from which many of them have fled, yet the Government’s rhetoric has been unfailingly caustic. However, the attempts – fences and security cameras […]
Praying for both teams: How religion both facilitates and dampens anti-immigration sentiment
The majority of the populations of many countries, the US included, identify with some kind of religion. At the same time, anti-immigrant sentiments are on the rise in many countries. Does religion foster intolerance towards migrants or encourage greater acceptance of them? In new research which uses experiments conducted with a variety of religious groups, […]
The misuse of psychological arguments in the immigration debate: why social psychology matters in the real world
Professor Steve Reicher recently gave a lecture on the fundamental questions facing social psychology. Amena Amer reflects on the implications of the talk and the importance of social psychologists being at the forefront of discussions on issues like immigration. The fundamental question for social psychology according to Reicher is to understand what the structures are that create essentialised […]
An EU quota trading system for refugees would offer a fair method for alleviating Europe’s migration crisis
The European Commission has proposed a quota system for distributing the responsibility for asylum seekers across EU member states. Mollie Gerver writes that while the principle of refugee quotas has generated opposition, a quota trading system, in which states can sell all or part of their quotas to other states, could offer a solution. She […]
UK immigration detention: What sort of reform, and when?
Immigration detainees in the UK face the largest detention estate in Europe, with physical infrastructure and regimes of surveillance and control adapted from penal institutions. Because the UK has no time limit on stays in detention, the psychological harm to detainees can be serious. An upper threshold would go some way to correct this deficiency and its harms. Consideration must also be given to replacing detention altogether with non-custodial, community-based programs of assisting, monitoring, and humanely shepherding […]
Care is required when making assertions about the relationship between diversity and social cohesion
Democratic Audit UK recently published a piece by Gal Ariely on the relationship between social cohesion and ethnic and religious diversity. Ariely argued that the the answer to whether the latter is eroded by the former depends on how diversity is conceptualized and measured. Here, Tom van der Meer responds to Ariely, arguing that great […]
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