Immigration deserves ‘honest public debate’ not ‘dehumanising rhetoric’ says Bishop of Leicester

CONCERNS about immigration and border policy deserve “honest and constructive public debate”, and “rhetoric that dehumanises vulnerable people fleeing violence or persecution” should be challenged, the Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Revd Martyn Snow, said this week.

Bishop Snow was responding to comments by the leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage, who said last week that the Church’s bishops had “a quite twisted view of what their flock on this country actually want them to do”.

As reported by Premier, Mr Farage told reporters on Monday of last week that his party was “completely open to real refugees”. But the Bishops “should have their heads within the sand. . . If they can’t see that aggressive young males chucking their iPhones and passports into the English Channel on the 12-mile line, so we are able to’t discover who they’re — in the event that they don’t understand that that could be a threat to our country, then frankly, they’re not doing a superb job.”

Responding on Tuesday, Bishop Snow said: “The Church of England is a various Church with individuals who have a wide selection of views on the political problems with our time. This is one in every of our biggest strengths — our local churches bring people together across differences — united as one body.

“As bishops, we don’t take our lead from polling or from political movements. Rather, we seek to follow Christ. He calls us to ‘welcome the stranger’ and to ‘love our neighbour as ourselves’ (including those with radically different views from our own).

“We recognise that immigration and border policy are matters of deep concern for a lot of across our nation. And we recognise that individuals are anxious in regards to the pressures on services, community solidarity and the integrity of our borders — issues which deserve honest and constructive public debate. So, we affirm the proper of individuals to precise concerns about immigration, but we must equally challenge rhetoric that dehumanises vulnerable people fleeing violence or persecution.”

Mr Farage’s comments repeat his earlier criticism of the bishops. Last yr, he suggested that they were “out of touch” when asked about likely criticism of his plans to deport migrants who crossed the Channel illegally. Writing for The Times last September, Bishop Snow suggested that there was “a grain of truth” within the claim.

While the Church couldn’t “remain silent within the face of inhumane policies or populist fearmongering”, he was aware of “faithful Christians sitting in our pews who support tighter border controls not out of hatred, but out of sincere concern for social cohesion, pressure on public services, and the pace of cultural change of their communities. Dismissing those concerns outright risks pushing these people farther from the Church they love.”

This week, he said that he had written to Mr Farage “to ask him to come back and see the work that our local churches are doing to bring people together across differences, to support people searching for refuge within the UK, in addition to supporting those that feel themselves ignored by Westminster politicians. Unfortunately, I actually have not received a reply to my letter.”

Bishop Snow made his maiden speech within the House of Lords, in 2022, during a debate on UK asylum and refugee policy, when he spoke of “the honour of serving a city which has been made by migration, including those searching for asylum” (News, 9 December 2022). He introduced himself as a “migrant”, born in Indonesia, and expressed concern in regards to the adequacy of the country’s “welcome, guidance, and orientation to refugees and asylum-seekers”.

He warned: “When we’re possessed by fear of the ‘other’, fear of losing control over our borders, or fear of what refugees show us of the fragility of human structures and ways of life, we’re lesser versions of ourselves.

“Of course, recognising our kinship with asylum-seekers and refugees doesn’t resolve the political questions around immigration. Questions of integration and the best way to live well together must still be wrestled with, but those are questions we must grapple with regardless, and we must accomplish that with sincerity and integrity.”

Last yr, a report on “the implications of projected population growth for the UK’s demographic future”, Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow, by the Common Good Foundation and the Centre for Policy Studies, noted that the web average population increase over the past few years had been running at greater than 500,000 per yr, akin to a city the scale of Sheffield — mainly through work visas and students. Further growth on this scale was not, it observed, “a prospect nearly all of British people welcome”. It included a chapter by a former Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, on social cohesion.

Responding to a debate on the report within the House of Lords in December, Bishop Snow spoke of wanting to “placed on record first my support for for an open debate on questions comparable to, ‘What is an inexpensive level of population growth?’ It could also be an uncomfortable query, but what are we here for if to not model healthy, mature debates on uncomfortable questions?”

Backing calls for a social cohesion strategy, he said: “We have to wrestle truthfully with the toll taken by poverty, deindustrialisation, many years of accelerating individualism, institutional distrust and inequality.”

On Monday, the Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, announced a latest Cultural and Integration Commission, to create an integration and cohesion plan “that sets out the culture that we wish people to assimilate into”.

“British culture exists,” she said. “We live in it. We profit from it and we have now an obligation to defend it and pass it on.”

The latest tracker from YouGov found that immigration topped the list of the “most significant issues facing the country”: 48 per cent of the respondents chosen it. For the past yr, Reform UK has led in voting-intention polls.

The Church Times approached Reform UK for comment.