The UK is holding a series of discussions on what to do about immigration
Citizens with different views on immigration will be asked to come together to debate the trade-offs between legal migration and economic growth in a series of events being planned by the Home Affairs Select Committee.
The Committee has announced a series of new “citizens’ assembly” style events with 100 people across three locations to better understand people’s considered views and where areas of consensus might be formed.
The Committee will then use the results to inform its scrutiny of this contested area of government policy. It will be partnering with Demos and King’s College London’s Policy Institute and Centre for British Democracy to deliver the deliberative workshops across the country.
What to expect from the discussions
Members of the public, reflecting the breadth of the local community, will be invited to come together to examine the complex range of factors that influence public policy decisions and the challenges of reducing the numbers of legal migrants.
With the government pledging to reduce inward migration and deliver economic growth, the sessions will explore the trade-offs that are involved in balancing the goal of reducing net migration with the workforce needs of business and the public sector.
Over the coming months, participants in Leicester, North Tyneside and Renfrewshire will take part in three deliberative events over different weekends.
Participants will have the opportunity to hear from experts as well as talk to fellow residents with different views to explore the extent of consensus on preferred ways to tackle this longstanding policy challenge.
To ensure a diverse range of contributions, the Committee said it will work with delivery partners to recruit a group of participants that reflects the local population. There will not be a process for members of the apply to take part.
The processes will be deliberative workshops, in which a cross section of the public are asked to reach shared conclusions and find common ground on an often contested policy question. They are given balanced information from experts in an easy to understand and accessible way to help navigate the issues.
They are styled on the model of Citizens’ Assemblies, but shorter in length than the established deliberative method used across the world. 105 residents will take part, with 35 in each location.
