@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...
I think the cohesion filter is in response to it not having been a major focus of the first round of funding (much more focussed on regen rather than cohesion) and so this is an attempt to course correct, as you say interesting to see a single measure used for such significant funding.
Also interesting that it is this question rather than "Agreement that the local area is a place where people from different backgrounds get along well together" or indeed a combo of the cohesion questions.
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.
The art pass is the only way to make exhibition costs feel the price they instinctively should be (i.e. reduced by half.)
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/...
Migration Advisory Committee has published (some of) numbers behind Mahmood's claim.
Care workers/dependants make *positive* net contribution for 1st 20 years in UK
After that - like Brits - they get old, retire and become a cost.
www.gov.uk/government/p...
Interestingly, the salience of migration seems to have plateaued or potentially be dipping, following a raft of policy announcements - 44% select either channel crossings or levels of migration as a top issue - the lowest since June 2025
There are other reasons for the UK government not to award or continue Palantir contracts but this statement of intent by its CEO must surely be decisive?
Try: "We chose not to have an exception, even for Chevening prog. Its unfortunate + unfair to vg students identified by FCDO. But we hope that may increase our leverage with their govts"
Why do we think that in case of Afghan women+Taliban govt?
Maybe it "sends a message" here. But what message?
This is a cruel story but also one of governmental incoherence. FCDO takes the time and effort to select the right scholars for this highly competitive scheme, which is part of its work and mandate. Home Office (unilaterally?) changes the rules, (presumably) refuses a carve out for Chevening.
Immigration salience - by local area
Most affluent: 43%
2nd most affluent: 44%
Middle fifth: 41%
Second most deprived: 41%
Most deprived: 38%
Ipsos issues index, Feb 2026
In less than a month, new providers of children’s homes, fostering services and secure accommodation will no longer be able to make a profit in Wales — making it the first nation in the UK to take this landmark step.
nation.cymru/news/wales-b...
The OBR views migration as a net fiscal contributor not a drag. Quite a few people don't like this or simply don't believe it, but it remains the case.
This is definitely worth a read. The electoral implications of two deprivations: "In the parts of the country where you can get a good job, you can’t get a good house; in the parts of the country where you can get a good house, you can’t get a good job."
The government is willing - as a political choice - to pay significant fiscal costs to get immigration down
But it can not fabricate fiscal savings of its settlement policy by presenting numbers which don't reflect its policy at all.
bsky.app/profile/sund...
"A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen." Just off the top of my head the potential interaction with local authority homelessness and social care duties feels significant?
Your regular reminder that the UK is in fact a high trust society and anyone who implies it isn’t is either selling you a pup or has bought one.
Its a political choice to want to keep net migration down (then readjust the borrowing, tax, spending numbers) or whether to want net migration to drift up (then readjust some of the Home Office policy drive to reduce/eliminate it). Can't do both.
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...
"Today’s OBR projections reveal two competing realities in government right now. The OBR and Treasury forecast an upturn in net migration, which makes their fiscal numbers add up – while the Home Office says it is determined to drive net migration down still further. They can’t have it both ways".
Here but excluded remains the worst of all worlds from an integration perspective.
