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Citizens from across the country worked together to develop a set of principles to inform the Home Affairs Select Committee’s inquiries. It called for work-based immigration policy to prioritise training up British workers to fill jobs before bringing in migrant workers – supported by investment in schools, local public services and integration programmes.

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• Read the findings

The principles will help shape the committee’s future scrutiny of work-related immigration after a process the chair said helped neutralise the “polarised and fractious” issue and would help create better policy.

The Home Affairs Committee in partnership with Demos yesterday published the findings of a programme of deliberative workshops on work-based immigration. Your Voice on Immigration explored new ways of involving members of the public in Parliament’s work, shedding new light on perceptions of immigration and the issues people think are most important.

Nearly 100 people took part in the events across the country. Over the course of a weekend they explored, debated and came to collective conclusions about a central question: The government has set a goal of reducing net migration the UK for work; in what ways should work-related immigration be reduced?

Events took place in three locations – North Tyneside, Leicester and Renfrewshire. At each workshop around 30 people came together, reflecting the local area by demographics and views on immigration and politics, to discuss the issues. A panel of experts set out the key information and different considerations underpinning the work-based immigration debate. The participants then worked together to develop a set of principles that should underpin how Government and Parliament should approach work-related immigration policy.

Each area produced a list of 10 guiding principles. Despite the workshops being held hundreds of miles apart in areas with very different experiences of immigration, participants arrived at similar conclusions. This meant that the 30 principles could be consolidated into 13 which have been handed to the Home Affairs Committee to guide their scrutiny of government policy. 

The recommendations reveal that participants felt there should be a greater emphasis on training and upskilling UK residents, particularly young people, before relying on migrant labour. There should also be adequate local infrastructure in place to ensure immigrants and existing residents are supported.

The principles also called for migrant workers to be treated with dignity and respect, with support provided to local communities to improve integration. There should be different immigration pathways that reflect individuals’ circumstances, and appropriate and clear pathways to settlement once people have a visa and are making a long-term contribution. Participants were prepared to accept some short-term costs in exchange for greater long-term workforce stability. Effective oversight and enforcement should be in place to ensure employers are treating workers fairly.

Decision making should be underpinned by evidence and long-term workforce planning to predict needs and address shortages, with some flexibility to respond to changing circumstances. Work-related immigration should take into account local labour market needs. Participants also wanted government to be more joined up in their approach to immigration, and for a more honest and balanced public conversation about immigration to be promoted.  

There were differing views on the trade-offs the Committee asked participants to consider. There was more support for restricting visa numbers for low skilled migrant workers than the higher skilled, but there was also some support for restricting neither. There were also varying opinions on whether visas should be short-term or aim to provide a route to staying in the UK permanently.

The report underlines the positive role that deliberative democracy approaches can play in developing policy in complex or contentious areas. Participants reported feeling more knowledgeable about immigration issues at the end of the process. 92% said they had changed their mind based on hearing other people’s views and praised the constructive approach to discussing a controversial subject, and how positive it was to hear people sharing very different points of view respectfully.

In light of the report’s findings the Home Affairs Committee will launch a new inquiry into work-based immigration. Full terms of reference for the inquiry will be published in due course.

Chair comment

Chair of the Home Affairs Committee, Dame Karen Bradley MP yesterday said:

“Immigration is one of the big political questions of our times. But this complex issue is too often debated in polarised and fractious ways, with the loudest voices leading the agenda. Good and effective policy cannot come out of such an approach.

 “We wanted to find out more than just whether immigration was good or bad, and whether it should just go up or down. We wanted to find out what members of the public thought about the difficult trade- offs that may be needed when deciding such a complex question.

“The list of priorities set out in this report gives a clear idea of the issues that matter to them. It was pleasing to see so many people from different backgrounds and different experiences work together to achieve this. But we must also recognise that there was dissatisfaction with how immigration has been handled and a trust gap in the ability of policy makers to deliver. It is now our job on the Home Affairs Committee to listen to what they have said and take this forward in our work.”

Further comments

Miriam Levin, Director of Democratic Engagement, from Demos yesterday said:

“The participants in the Your Voice on Immigration deliberative workshops showed that people can respectfully discuss topics that are polarising, complex and technical, and reach considered collective conclusions with nuance and sensitivity. Participants who disagreed with one another found substantial common ground across profound divides, with 92% saying they had changed their mind on work-related immigration as a result of hearing others’ views and expert testimony.

“Participants themselves regarded this as a significant outcome: they ranked an honest and balanced public conversation about immigration highly in their principles, and many hoped that processes of this kind would be used more widely in policymaking, beyond immigration alone.

“By commissioning deliberative workshops, the Home Affairs Committee has enabled a different kind of conversation about immigration with the public than the usual polarised and polarising discourse. Deliberative workshops like these can help to rebuild trust between citizens and between citizens and state.”

Further information

• About Parliament: Select committees
• Visiting Parliament: Watch committees
• Home Affairs Committee