Immigration policy is an issue on which governments must commit to one overall strategy both at the political and organizational levels says former UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke.
Clarke was speaking on the first day of a three-day policy seminar for migration leaders organized by the School of Public Policy in cooperation with the Migration Policy Institute and the Open Society Foundations' International Migration Initiative. The aim of the seminar, which - from December 4 to 6 in Budapest - brought together 16 senior officials from 14 countries, was to offer evidence-based policy analysis to help officials from Ministries of Interior, Justice and Labour manage the most pressing migration issues.
The seminar brought together 16 senior officials from 14 countries.
In his presentation on the 'Whole of Government' approach, Clarke spoke of his efforts as the UK's Home Secretary between 2004 and 2006 to establish an approach to migration which included the ministries responsible for economic, education, justice and foreign policy to all adopt one strategy for dealing with migration. The current approach, according to Clarke, is often one in which the political and organizational wings of government hold varying, and sometimes contradictory, approaches to migration issues.
British public opinion on immigration is one which has retained a 'poisonous aspect' since Enoch Powell's 'River's of Blood' speech in 1968 said Clarke, who lays the blame for this in the hands of politicians who would rather use migration as a tool for scoring political points than treat it as a real policy issue. "Britain today is characterized by a complete dislocation between the facts and the political rhetoric on what is happening in immigration. For me, the key way of making progress in this area is to have a substantial public debate and a governmental debate which takes the subject seriously and does not try to push it in to a corner. In addition, it is very important to have realistic goals of policy which have a real chance of being achieved. In the UK we have had rhetorical rather than practical policy goals. For example the slogan 'British jobs for British workers' was in fact completely unfeasible without leaving the European Union. Our current government has a policy of setting a net target for migration which cannot and will not ever be achieved. The problem with politicians putting forward rhetorical rather than practical policy goals is that they just serve to build the cynicism and dislocation between the people of the country and the real facts of the situation."
Migration is something which must first be understood before proper control can be applied, Clarke believes, and the European Union should be helping member states to go about this. This was among the recommendations which Clarke has suggested is a recent essay entitled The EU and Migration: A Call for Action. In addition to taking steps to better understand how migration can be directed to improve many aspects of a country's economy and its relations with the countries from which its immigrants are coming, Clarke also believes that the public must be allowed to see a transparent immigration system with clear rules for who can or cannot enter a country as an immigrant. "Without this, the system can look chaotic and leads to further public cynicism and anger which benefits the growing number of anti-immigration political groups around Europe.", Clarke said.
Photos: A. Anca