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PROGRESS: 2006-2011
MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS NETWORK
Tone of Immigration Debate in Parliament 2011
BUILDING POLITICAL SUPPORT Building Debate Over the past twelve months, MRN has established a reputation for the APPG on Migration as a serious source of debate and information which moves beyond a polarised debate on migration. Throughout 2011, we have held regular parliamentary roundtables on key migration policy issues, including the economic impacts of restricting economy migration, regional impacts of cutting foreign students, and the role of migrant workers in the UK’s social care sector. These meetings have drawn upon cross-party panels and expert interventions, and been informed by evidence-based briefings.
In order to bring about real change in support of migrants, we will need a different kind of political debate on migration. Since early 2011, MRN has been working within the UK Parliament as the secretariat to the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Migration. Through the APPG we have brought parliamentarians from all political parties around the table to find points of consensus on key issues. Central to this process has been the wide engagement of a range of key stakeholders, from business and trades unions to migrant advocates, around common messages.
Working with MPs and Peers This work has helped to identify a number of parliamentarians, from across the main political parties, who want to see and take part in a better informed, more constructive and long-term debate on migration. Membership of the APPG on Migration has increased over the past year – a trend we expect to continue. MRN has also, through the APPG on Migration, organized private briefings for MPs and peers, informed by the latest evidence and analysis, on key migration issues. During the course of 2011, our written briefings have reached over 900 MPs and peers.
ATTENDANCE OF APPG EVENTS BY MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT AND PEERS, 2011
3
2 4
1
%
17
%
1 Conservative
30
2 Labour
25
3 Liberal Democrats
20
4 Others (Greens, Crossbenchers, UKIP and DUP)
25
Attendance of APPG on Migration meeting by party affiliation (total of 20).
Engaging Key Stakeholders We believe that engaging civil society and other stakeholders in parliamentary debate on migration is critical. As such MRN aims to open up parliamentary mechanisms to our network of stakeholders wherever possible, to ensure that briefings, parliamentary questions and debates are informed by key concerns. A more coordinated stakeholder base will be important for taking forward the wider debate on migration. In late 2011 we successfully brought together thirty key stakeholders from business, higher education and public services, for a masterclass on how to strengthen effective public messaging on immigration. The APPG also now has a sponsorship programme in place, to establish a way for stakeholders to help maintain the work of the group for the future. The success of our parliamentary program so far indicates that there is scope for a new political debate on migration – the focus now is to build momentum around this work over the coming months. With the UK economy at a vital point, the group’s program for 2012 will focus on how reforms to UK migration policy will continue to have an impact on the economy and set out an ambitious agenda that will help set the stage for a serious cross-party debate and consensus building in parliament.
Key words and phrases taken from Hansard transcripts of Parliamentary debates on immigration in 2011 and analysed using IBM Many Eyes. Word size is relative to the number of occurrences in debate.