Parliament should debate migration targets every year to restore public confidence, say MPs
2 min read
Government plans around migration targets and controls should be based on public consultation and debated by MPs each year, a Commons committee has said.
A report by the Home Affairs Committee said the immigration system was in need of a major overhaul amid a crisis in public confidence and proposed the publication of three-year plans which would be reviewed annually.
The Annual Migration Report would also detail the previous year’s migration flows, immigrants' economic contribution, regional needs and measures to promote integration, manage impacts, costs and pressure on services.
The MPs also said that the new system, similar to that used in Canada, would include training plans to reduce the skills shortages that increase demand for overseas workers.
And they say that the policy would be shaped to an extent by the Migration Advisory Committee, in a similar way to how the Chancellor’s budget is informed by the Office for Budget Responsibility.
“Adopting this approach would allow for better consideration of the costs and benefits of immigration and would help build greater consensus,” the MPs suggested.
The committee also called for the Government’s long-term net migration target of the ‘tens of thousands’ to be replaced by a system that looks at different "kinds" of immigration and that "at a minimum", students should be removed from the target.
Committee chair Yvette Cooper, said the Government needed to halt the issue of immigration as a “divisive debate”.
The Labour MP said that after working with citizens’ panels and community meetings, the committee found that there is “considerable common ground in contrast to the polarisation we too often hear in national debates”.
“The net migration target isn’t working to build confidence and it treats all migration as the same. That’s why it should be replaced by a different framework of targets and controls. And frankly the system needs to work effectively,” she said.
“As long as there are so many errors and so many problems with enforcement, people won't have confidence that the system is either fair or robust.
She added: “We cannot stress enough how important it is to prevent escalating divisions, polarisation, anger or misinformation on an issue like immigration.
“To fail to respond risks doing long term damage to the social fabric, economy and politics of our country.”
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