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Migration 'pinch points' coping well, Blears tells MPs
The Lincolnshire town of Boston, a quarter of whose population is new migrants, and the rural district of Arun, in West Sussex, were today named as migration "pinch points" that have gone through a recent rapid population change.
The communities secretary, Hazel Blears, told MPs that both Boston and Arun had coped well with the arrival of migrant workers, offering welcome packs, "myth-busting" leaflets for the settled population and two-way language classes for migrants and local policing teams.
An inquiry into the impact of immigration by MPs on the communities and local government select committee also heard a warning from the government-sponsored Community Development Foundation that new patterns of racial prejudice and hostility towards migrants were emerging, particularly among settled communities of Asian and Caribbean origin.
Blears said extra money was being made available for public services to cope with the impact of immigration, but she warned that unless employers of migrant labour made a greater contribution to the costs of English language lessons, the government would consider using legislation to make them pay.
Blears, who met officials from a dozen local authorities including Boston last week to discuss the impact of migration on communities, said: "If you talk to Boston, in fact now something like 25% of their population is from eastern European countries and they've said it is fundamental to their economy: they absolutely need those people for the skills, but equally there is a big impact."
She said it was difficult to get a national evaluation of the impact of migration, but it was important to "drill down" into local communities and ensure the government and local authorities were well prepared to support them in coping with the pace of change.
Blears said polls showed there were high levels of community cohesion in Britain, with 80% agreeing people got on well together in their local area. Only in 10 out of 387 areas did it drop below 60%.
Evidence from the Department of Communities and Local Government indicated the wave of migrants going to Boston to work in the agriculture industry were mainly from Portugal and eastern European countries, and in a short time the number of languages spoken in the area had risen to 65.
Officials also cited Langport, a small town in Somerset, as an example of an area that had lacked experience of diversity but had recently attracted an increasing number of migrant workers.
A series of initiatives were launched in the town to welcome and befriend newcomers and to explain to the settled local community why the migrant workers - mainly Polish and Portuguese - were coming to their area.
Blears praised the work done in Cornwall by the Responsible Employers Scheme to ensure the rights of migrant workers were protected and promoted.
The Community Development Foundation said Asian and Caribbean communities particularly resented the arrival of new ethnic minorities and the consequent competition for "race equality" resources.
The group said preparing existing populations for new arrivals was key to addressing tensions such as increased competition for access to public services. It was also important to dispel suspicions about new migrants getting more than their "fair share" of public services.
Source: The Guardian, Alan Travis - Home Affairs editor
22/04/2008
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