Bright Blue, the independent think tank for defending and improving liberal society, has today published an essay collection, A positive contribution: an honest and detailed plan to improve our immigration system, with ten contributions from top MPs and thought leaders together creating a fresh centre-right vision to reduce levels of legal and illegal migration.
This essay collection is an attempt to offer a popular and effective set of policies to improve our immigration system, rooted in centre-right principles: control, contribution and cohesion. That is, national governments should have the power to determine the number and type of migrants who are admitted. And migrants should only be admitted and allowed to stay if they successfully contribute to and integrate into our country.
Contributors include: The Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP (former Deputy Foreign Secretary), David Simmonds MP (Shadow Minister for Housing, Communities and Local Government), Madeleine Sumption (Director, Migration Observatory), Tim Loughton (former Minister for Children and Families), and more.
Ryan Shorthouse, Executive Chair of Bright Blue, commented:
“We need honesty on immigration: about what can and should be delivered by government. The levels of legal and illegal migration that we have experienced in the initial part of the 2020s have been unacceptably and eye-wateringly high. The public clearly wants much lower levels of both legal and illegal migration. Democracy must deliver.
“But so too must our economy. As such, high levels of immigration, like what was experienced in the 2010s when net migration hovered between 200,000 and 300,000 per annum, are both inevitable and indeed desirable for developed countries. However, this is contingent on the type of migrants who are admitted – ones who will successfully contribute to and integrate into our country – being controlled by national governments.
“The available evidence suggests that it is beneficial to the UK to have reasonably high levels of high-skilled migration. Considering this, as well as the democratic case for lower levels of overall migration, there is an argument for designing an even more contributory-based skilled migration system. This would mean a system where we have fewer but more highly skilled migrants, with an expectation of greater contribution from them economically and socially to the UK.”
In total, our contributors offer over 40 policy recommendations. Contributors may not necessarily agree with the policies advocated by other contributors. Key recommendations include:
Work and study
- The minimum salary threshold for Skilled Worker visas should rise at least in line with wage inflation, should vary by age to take into account different lifetime fiscal impact, and should take into account that founders of start-ups are remunerated through equity.
- An additional time-limited employees’ and employers’ National Insurance Contributions (NIC) band should be established for those on Skilled Worker visas, with a discount available for upfront payment, so migrants pay a catch-up contribution for public services they use instantly, such as schools.
- A new condition of having a Skilled Worker visa should be a minimum number of hours volunteering per year, validated by a registered charity.
- The UK should introduce a Youth Mobility Scheme with the EU for a capped number of individuals aged 30 or under.
- Expand eligibility of High Potential Individual (HPI) visas to graduates from the top 100 universities of at least two of three major global university rankings, and also leading business schools and specialist colleges.
- Grant open work visas for up to three years for individuals who have already secured a highly skilled visa from a comparable country.
- Establish a new specialist, government-backed taskforce to give powers to grant visas to extraordinarily talented individuals.
- Extend the Graduate Visa to three years from two years.
Refugees and asylum seekers
- Join willing EU countries in introducing third-party processing of asylum claims
- Introduce visa restrictions on migrants from countries with poor returns of failed UK asylum seekers
- Offer more climate finance to countries that sign return agreements for illegal migrants
- Increase the time period until a migrant can claim Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) from five years to 10 years
- Expand safe and legal refugee routes from a broader range of countries
- Better incentivise and train asylum seekers to foster unaccompanied children
- Increase the amount failed asylum seekers who voluntarily return can obtain above the current £3,000
- Use the Rwanda Treaty to relocate failed asylum seekers from the UK
- Reduce the 12-month ban on asylum seekers before they can work to reduce net costs of asylum accommodation
- Introduce ID cards to better track migrants and estimate their fiscal impact
Social integration
- Funding for public services should be responsive to differences in population growth in different parts of the UK
- Amend the Public Sector Equality Duty so the fostering of good relations between people is changed to the enabling of social, economic and cultural integration of local communities
- Require local authorities to publish data on school and residential mixedness, by ethnicity and religion
- Monthly visa data to ministers should include all visas, including graduate and visitor visas, and include information of the sponsor institutions and local authorities of different visas
Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP, former Deputy Foreign Secretary, commented:
“The eye-watering costs of housing asylum seekers, together with a perceived corresponding decline in public services – such as the length of time it took to get a GP appointment – fuelled the not unreasonable view that UK generosity was being meted out unchecked, and that the British people were being taken for fools.
Political elites should have learned by now that we patronise voters at our peril. We need look no further than Trump’s victory to understand the depth of the fury that marginalisation unleashes. Around Europe the emerging patterns are similar, as narrow nationalism rears its head on the back of legitimate fears and concerns and the establishment’s failure to heed them.”
David Simmonds MP, Shadow Minister for Housing, Communities and Local Government, commented:
“By investing in community sponsorship schemes, the UK government can create more humane and sustainable solutions for refugee resettlement, while also strengthening the fabric of their societies. As the global refugee crisis continues, community sponsorship can serve as a model for compassionate and effective humanitarian action.”
Tim Loughton, Former Minister for Children and Families, commented:
“Since the Rwanda scheme’s abandonment by the new Labour Government, the EU and individual northern European countries have announced they are looking at similar schemes for third party processing of migrants they struggle to remove. The best solution would be for us to join such a scheme with the more willing of our former EU partners. Just talking about clamping down on evil people-smuggling gangs is no deterrent at all. The fact that unseasonal Channel crossings have been rising relentlessly exposes the emptiness of the Government’s rhetoric.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
To arrange an interview with a Bright Blue spokesperson or for further media enquiries, please contact Ryan Shorthouse on ryan@brightblue.org.uk or on 07754 672233
- Bright Blue is the independent think tank for defending and improving liberal society.
- This essay collection is edited by Dr Will Prescott and Joe Harrison, two Bright Blue members of staff.
- This essay collection is kindly sponsored by Unbound Philanthropy. Bright Blue retains full editorial control over all its outputs. The sponsor does not necessarily endorse the report’s recommendations.
- Bright Blue’s Board includes Diane Banks, Philip Clarke, Alexandra Jezeph, Richard Mabey and Ryan Shorthouse.
- Our advisory council can be found here. Members of our advisory council a do not necessarily endorse all our policy recommendations, including those included in this press release.
