APPGs report on incoming asylum & immigration reforms & effects on poverty published today by APPG on Poverty & @appgmigration.bsky.social - appgmigration.org.uk/appgs-publis...

When something is so obviously a terrible idea, it is ok to just...say no thanks and ban it. We don't have to wait 15 years and then slowly ban if after a whole bunch of irreperable damage has been done to individuals and society.

As part of a package of reforms to the UK’s asylum system, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced a community sponsorship route for refugees to come to the UK. Writing for The Conversation, @jacquibroadhead.bsky.social reflects on the new scheme. 🔗 theconversation.com/community-re...

You could search for years and still never find something that Trump cannot strip of its beauty. It’s an extraordinary gift

Windrush Lessons Learnt: "Warning signs and messages...were not heeded. Instead the policy was promoted because of a resolute conviction that it would be effective and should be vigorously pursued. Warnings by external stakeholders, individuals and organisations were not given enough consideration."

This is a big problem. If the last information people receive is always “numbers went up” because “numbers went down” is never reported we shouldn’t be surprised that perceptions about immigration end up so skewed. Media should take some responsibility here - this is a salient and polarising issue.

Coverage for a new report from @hepi-news.bsky.social looking at languages provision in schools www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/07/01/n...

Revealed preferences suggest this 37% drop in small boat nunbers (first two quarters) is treated as ×10-x50 times less newsworthy than a 37% increase has been. Given high salience of the issue, should broadcasters try to check/balance that instinct?

The @icibi.bsky.social report published last week sets out just what a poor state asylum decision making is in. That is what drives the appeals backlog and accommodation costs. Nothing in any of these so called “reforms” does anything to address that. It only risks pulling resource elsewhere.

It’s hard enough to run a functioning asylum system, but the package of polices the Government is enacting on the refugee tax, temporary leave and longer settlement means the Home Office will need a whole new system for refugees as well, up to and beyond 20 years after they have been granted.

"The Home Office estimates that the benefits will outweigh the costs, though this can not be evidenced at this time"

A future classic of the genre.

The government shortlisted two policy options, according to its impact assessment. Option zero: Do nothing Option one: full implementation of all of the measures in the bill. As doing nothing woukd not pursue its goals, it chose to proceed.

I think the lesson here is that capital regeneration infrastructure has to run alongside renewed social infrastructure (both public services and civil society), the latter has to be done though long term devolved funding settlements, rather than more one-off regeneration projects.

Posted without comment

Do politically difficult things, it's worth it.

New Lords report on Integration supports the commitment by MHCLG to develop an integration strategy, but notes a lack of urgency to do so. This is a consistent theme in integration policy making, seemingly forever destined for the back of the queue. publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5902/ld...

New Lords committee report on the UK’s proposed changes to the system for earning permanent residence, and discussing settlement/citizenship more generally committees.parliament.uk/committee/51...

It's such a defining example of his failure. Had he arrived in Downing Street and immediately announced it as a moral imperative it would have won over much of PLP and voter coalition.

📢 NEW BLOG: The Windrush scandal was "foreseeable and avoidable". Eight years on, what should it teach us about earned settlement? Our latest blog argues the best way to honour the Windrush Generation is to ensure the same mistakes are never repeated 👇 www.ippr.org/articles/win...

One thing we mean when we talk about "stronger social norms" is racist chants, slurs not seen as normal by most normal people. Football did more than anything else to put the idea of "zero tolerance" into practice. Elon Musk's X is doing more/trying harder than anyone else to renormalise racism

When utilized in literature review, LLMs consistently 1. fail to mention female authors in female-led literatures, 2. insist that men are more influential or more heavily cited when this is contradicted by objective citation counts, and 3. attribute women’s work to hallucinated male scholars.

Having spoken to social care workers affected by the changes, I *hate* this language. Party management/vibes is a terrible way to make policy at the best of times but when the futures of several hundred thousand people is at stake, unforgiveable.

Excited for #epss2026, where I'll share work about immigrants' occupational essentialness and public views on welfare: Friday, 10.50, Broadway (Hilton). With stellar coauthors @jacquibroadhead.bsky.social @mfreino.bsky.social @deniskierans.bsky.social @isabel-ruiz.bsky.social @msumption.bsky.social

Research on socio-economic duty implementation ahead of introduction in England (EHRC, 2025). The socio-economic duty has been introduced in Scotland and in Wales, and this is now due to happen in England. www.equalityhumanrights.com/media-centre...

NEW The end of the failed Rwanda asylum scheme An arbitration decision gives the UK a lucky final victory, but more than £250m has already been lost My latest at @prospectmagazine.co.uk www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

This is *such* a consistent feature of living in the UK - the actual day to day experience of people in this country is so much nicer than what the press or our leadership cadre would have you think - it is remarkable in a somewhat destabilising fashion just how stark the difference is.

New Public Accounts Committee report on the asylum system. Striking how many of the recommendations focus on the urgent need for the Home Office to make much better links with MHCLG and local government. committees.parliament.uk/publications...

DfE pupil data is out today and shows that the number of private school pupils has dropped 5.6% since VAT was introduced. Not 25% like the independent schools council predicted. Or the 50% we saw in some right-wing papers. 5.6%.

Important considerations on immigration changes in relation to both their retrospective nature and the lack of parliamentary scrutiny of them.

No 10 thought net 200k or 200-250k good landing zone this time last year [white paper] but were worried it might spike above that The govt has never had a decision to aim for < net 100k. It is Mahmood's instinct But costs Treasury £20 billion. PM does not appear to have any firm view of that choice

Net migration was 171,000 across the whole of 2025 - halving from the net migration level of 2024 (331,000 is the 2024 estimate) - ONS Driven by a fall in immigration [not a rise in emigration] Immigration is falling further during 2026, so the November number will fall again

Applications in the year to March 2026 are down around 12%. 93,525 people claimed asylum in the UK during that time. 4 in 10 - 42% - of those who claimed asylum had arrived on a small boat. Small boat crossings are about 40% lower in 2026 that at the same time last year.

As expected, the immigration stats show that the asylum backlog is now down to to 35,744 cases, which is just under 49,000 people. Lowest since pre-covid. And there were 20,855 people in hotels at the end of March - which is down a third since the time of the election.

Astonishing (yet somehow unsurprising) perception gaps in this research - major failures in both government communications and media coverage to be at this point alongside significant misinformation.

The dumping of at-risk children by local authorities in illegal homes symbolises a broken care system and grotesque state failure. My @unherd.com column on how vulnerable children became big business - with damaging consequences unherd.com/2026/05/how-...

Rubber, meet road.

I think it unlikely that even 1/10 journalists, MPs know this about population I think it is genuinely a surprise to this govt itself that they are now going to undershoot that in 2026 and in 2027 (possibly by an eyecatching significant unplanned outflow) www.gov.uk/government/p...

ONS significantly downgrades UK population growth forecast on the back of falling net migration - with net migration central estimate reduced from 340k per year to 230k (means population of the UK would hit 71m by 2034, rather than 72.2m, as projected in 2022)

@jacquibroadhead.bsky.social, Director of the Global Exchange on Migration at COMPAS, shares her thoughts on why cohesion and integration must be taken more seriously in UK policy making. ⬇️ Where do the key challenges lie and how we can get to a better place? www.compas.ox.ac.uk/article/taki...

There is an imagined working class, that largely no longer exists and a modern working class that the political class rarely interact with outside of service provision.

A Doctor quoted in this piece: “I previously asked the Home Office for permission to work as a doctor three times. But they refused me three times. I specialise in paediatric intensive care but until now I have been forced to do nothing,”

Very much enjoy this municipal energy.

Alex Norris, Home Office Minister, is speaking at a Citizens UK summit event about launching named community sponsorship in the UK in Westminster "This is a bet on the British people". Those who express concerns will also step up for Afghans, Syrians, Ukrainians and Hong Kongers, he says

HASC then was chaired by Yvette Cooper. The Migration Advisory Committee annual report + a wider remit came out of that report. Successive governments have not yet adopted the proposal to do this at scale in a regular process. This proposal has picked up a broader coalition since 2024 though.

More on the 3 discussion locations and the methods being used committees.parliament.uk/committee/83...

Demos are holding three discussion sessions - with the Home Affairs Committee - they will visit Northumberland, Leicestershire and South Renfrewshire, which should again capture the case for dialogue + discussions about immigration choices in polarised times BBC www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Govt's plans to double (or more) the length of time it takes for migrants to qualify for settlement in the UK risks exacerbating child poverty, according to new analysis by @ippr.org Poverty will be prolonged for 60,000-90,000 children of foreign workers by 2029 www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...