Trust in immigration vital

PUBLIC trust in immigration systems is determined by the ability of government to trans­late national interests into benefits that are experienced at a local level, a Canadian senator has revealed.

Ratna Omidvar, the senator of Ontario, Canada, made comparisons between Canada and the UK judging from the initial findings revealed in The National Conversation on Immigration, the biggest-ever public consultation on immi­gration. The interim report was released to the Home Af­fairs Committee in January.

“Every community visited in the UK has its own local expe­rience with migrants, made up of a mix of positive and nega­tive views,” Omidwarm re­vealed. “The perspectives of many people are clearly de­fined by what they see happen­ing locally.”

She added being able to “touch and feel” the effects of migration are important to lo­cal communities, so they can truly experience the benefits.

The senator, who is of Punja­bi origin, explained how every immigrant has a story to tell from a similar narrative: “Each one of us stars in the same four-part movie – there is arriv­al, rejection, reinvention and hopefully, there is redemption if not in the first generation but from our children.”

Omidvar made her com­ments alongside fellow key­note speakers, Labour MP Yvette Cooper and Professor Miles Hewstone at the Immi­gration and Integration: Get­ting It Right Locally confer­ence at the British Library last Thursday (17).

The director of British Fu­ture, Sunder Katwala, shared Omidvarm’s sentiments, stat­ing getting immigration right depends on the local places where communities live.

“We’ve seen how much posi­tive work is taking place around the country, particu­larly in schools and in civil society,” he noted. “What has been missing is a national strategy for integration that knits that together, sup­porting local actors to make an impact.”

He added the challenge for the communities secretary James Brokenshire is to build on the integration Green Pa­per in ways that bridge the na­tional and local divide.