THE UK economy could receive net advantages of £1.2 billion in five years if employment support and English-language for refugees were quickly implemented, a latest report suggests.
The report, From Arrival to Integration: Building communities for refugees and for Britain, uses modelling developed by the London School of Economics, and sets out 16 recommendations. It was published last week by the Commission on the Integration of Refugees.
Immigration costs might be outweighed by positive outcomes in three years, the Commission says. Clear, targeted interventions that specifically support refugees and asylum-seekers into work could improve a refugee’s economic integration and potential for locating a job with the next salary.
One of the Commission’s 22 members was the Bishop of Chelmsford, Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani. “These recommendations could improve life for refugees and the broader British public, upskill the UK economy, and lift a net income of greater than £1 billion,” she said.
Describing the Commission’s work as “essentially the most significant and detailed exploration of those issues in a generation” and “not only objectively commonsense solutions”, she said that “a latest deal have to be made for refugees within the UK — one which is fair, deliverable, and accountable. It’s time for a latest approach.
“Here is a set of practical and achievable solutions on the way to create an asylum system that helps construct a stronger, more resilient, and economically flourishing Britain — for everybody.”
Between September 2022 and December 2023, the Commission received evidence from greater than 1250 stakeholders, policy-makers, journalists, academics, and asylum-seekers and refugees themselves.
Dr Ed Kessler, who chaired the Commission, said: “Our work has provided a wealthy insight into what’s clearly a broken system. It’s expensive, inefficient, and damaging for refugees and Britain.
“But amongst the debris were findings that gave us real hope and inspiration for a really different system: one which supports refugees, communities, and wider society to thrive; one which our political leaders can realistically embrace.”
The report also proposes a “latest settlement” for refugees, by transferring the national system into “local integration partnerships”. Centrally controlled budgets and decisions, siloed schemes for various groups of refugees, and outsourcing to non-public contractors all have to be given to devolved governments, local authorities and communities, it argues. This, it says, would align funding, decision-making, and delivery where they’re most significant.
The reinstatement of a UK Refugee Minister is a policy goal within the recommendations to the Government, alongside more efficient processing, setting overall numbers, the necessity for strong governance and oversight of the entire system, and the creation of an independent reviewer of refugee affairs, involving individuals with experience as refugees.
The Archbishop of Canterbury welcomed the report. “It gives us an informed basis to speak, not only about how we welcome refugees, but how we help them to rebuild their lives and turn out to be full and contributing members of our communities. Integration is straightforward to say and hard to do — but this report takes us a step forward.”
