Citizenship tests were introduced in the UK in 2005, as part of a raft of innovations in the area of citizenship and naturalisation. But are these tests requiring immigrants to the UK to become ‘super-citizens’, before we allow them to have full citizenship rights? Dr Bridget Byrne, author of recent research into the test, argues […]
Net migration target remains nebulous
Given that it is the central focus of UK immigration policy, it is striking that the actual number of the net migration target and its statistical justification has remained so nebulous, says Dr Laurence Brown. “Net migration” was a key term that dominated Home Secretary Theresa May’s recent speech at the Conservative party conference. In […]
Migrant Drs keep the NHS going
Research led by Yasmin Ghazala Farooq with Kingsley Purdam, Aneez Esmail and Rob Ford at the University of Manchester has highlighted the vital contribution overseas trained doctors have made to people’s health and to the NHS in the UK. Given the ongoing debates about immigration control it is important to recognise that Britishness is a […]
Business as usual on migration and climate change will not produce sustainable development
Professor Uma Kothari explores what may happen with development and migration as climate change begins to have an impact. The impacts of climate change are likely to be severe. Extreme weather events, heat stress, rising sea levels, infections and disease are just some potential results, which will hit poor and vulnerable populations in developing countries […]
What can history teach us about migration?
As the migration crisis continues to rock Europe, Tanja Müller looks back at a story from the Second World War, to see what the past can teach about current attitudes to those trying to make it to Europe for a better life. It has become a common trope to describe the current movement of people […]
The quest for solidarity in a fractured Europe
With conflict raging in Calais between lorry drivers and would-be migrants to the UK, Tanja Müller asks what happened to European solidarity. World Refugee Day 2015, on 20 June, coincided with a huge anti-austerity demonstration in London. This was narrowly concerned with the specific politics on the British Isles – politics that seems to become […]
Migration and public health
Matteo Dembech of the World Health Organisation (WHO) blogs on how WHO is working to improve the health of migrants, including those trying to cross the Mediterranean this summer and how Governments in the EU can help. Seventy-three million migrants are estimated to live in the WHO European Region. Since 2011, particularly those countries closest […]
The manufacturing of death by EU asylum and migration politics
Hundreds of people trying to migrate from Africa to Europe have been drowned this week, when the boats they were travelling in sank. Here Tanja Müller says more needs to be done and that European policies have contributed to the deaths. It has become a defining feature of European asylum and migration policy in recent […]
Media must bear some blame for hostility to Poles
Attacks on Polish families living in the UK are strongly influenced by negative portrayals in the media, argues Alina Rzepnikowska. Polish families in Belfast have suffered a series of attacks in recent week. A row of three Polish families’ homes was spray painted with messages telling the families to leave the city. Elsewhere in Belfast, […]
As migration debate rages, look to Manchester for integration inspiration
Unless the UK tackles anti-Roma perceptions and prejudice, the exclusion and marginalisation of Roma will continue to thwart any chance of their integration, writes Prof Yaron Matras. Those who follow the situation of Europe’s Roma know that there is never a “dull” week in which we don’t hear of accusations, abuse, or even violence against […]