The cross-party, multi-faith Commission on the Integration of Refugees aims to create a society where all feel welcome.
immigration Is A hot-button topic in the UK. Whether it’s migrant boats crossing the Channel, asylum seekers clashing with protestors in Knowsley, or the government’s attempts to deport migrants to Rwanda, the issue is never far from the headlines. As the debate rages on, ministers have had to contend with rising statistics and an increasingly heated rhetoric in the Commons. This shows little sign of abating following reports that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak may be willing to pull out of the European Convention on Human Rights in a bid to curb migrant arrivals. The UK has been told that at least 65,000 illegal migrants are expected to enter the country in 2023. If that’s correct, this would be a rise in illegal immigration of 50 per cent this year.
With passions running high on both sides of the debate, a new independent body has been set up to help improve the integration of refugees in the UK. The Commission on the Integration of Refugees aims to bring together a number of opposing views and diverse experiences to create a society where everyone, including refugees, feels part of a cohesive and welcoming community. Convened by Dr Edward Kessler, founder president of the Woolf Institute and fellow of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge, and chaired by Lord (Alex) Carlisle of Berriew, a former MP, barrister and a crossbench peer, the commission aims to “work together to overcome differences and find common ground on how to fix the broken system with practical solutions”.
Twenty four commissioners will hear from refugees and asylum seekers, economists, security and police forces, lawyers, third-sector workers, business leaders, clinicians, education and health experts, academics, faith leaders, and policymakers from across the political spectrum.
Recently I had the opportunity to speak to Dr Kessler and Bishop Paul McAleenan, one of the commissioners. Bishop McAleenan was ordained an auxiliary bishop for the archdiocese of Westminster in 2016, and is also the lead bishop for migrants and refugees and racial justice issues in the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
I asked both what the defining goals of the commission are. Dr Kessler answered first: “Before Ukraine, before Rwanda, we felt the idea of convening people who disagree with each other for the purpose of improving the experience of refugees was worth exploring. The purpose is not only to improve the experience of refugees themselves and the public experience of refugees, but to improve a system that we all agree is broken, whether we’re on the left or the right, whatever faith, traditional or none, and the refugees themselves, with some practical, reasonable thought-through suggestions.”
Bishop McAleenan continued: “From the perspective of everyone, I would imagine even including the government, the system is broken. It is very important that whenever a case is presented, it is assessed quickly and justly. That is not happening at the moment. It is a duty and obligation to those who are seeking asylum that they have their case heard and that it is assessed. The present system is not providing that.”
One of the key components of this commission is its ability to bring together opposing views. Through practical and open dialogue, the hope is that the commission can offer realistic long-term solutions to issues on integration. For instance, two commissioners who promote very conflicting views are Baroness Hale, the former President of the Supreme Court, and David Goodhart, journalist, author and head of the demography unit at Policy Exchange. They wrote an op-ed for The Times explaining why they’ve come together for this commission. There is recognition on both sides that the system needs fixing and perhaps the only realistic way of ensuring that is through unified cooperation.
I asked Bishop McAleenan about the role that faith and Catholicism had to play in the commission. “Beginning with Catholicism, our position is very well known, going as far back as 1891, with Rerum novarum, which speaks about the right to migrate. It’s embedded into Catholic social teaching,” he said.
“But in the other faiths, it is very much an element of being open to the stranger. And all faiths have this aspect of loving, welcoming, and promoting and helping people to have what indeed is their human rights. So to involve all the faith communities is very much an important aspect of the commission.”
Dr Kessler added that “the churches really do lead the way. And many of the refugee centres and advisory centres and homeless shelters and so on, are church-based or at least church-initiated. Of course, poverty knows no bounds. So they reach and serve everybody.”
The commission’s first publication is a review of asylum reform initiatives between 1997 and 2022. The report’s key finding is that successive governments have seen integration as a secondary concern to the “primary” task of sorting eligible asylum applications from ineligible ones. I asked Dr Kessler how the Commission expects to change the orientation of the debate.
“We have the hope and expectation of making not just recommendations, but seeing their implementation. The commission will stand or fall on its credibility and on its ability to bring these different groups together. They might not welcome all our recommendations – we have some way to go yet. But the call for evidence and the general openness across different political divides gives some hope that the recommendations will actually make a difference. And in the end, that’s what we want to achieve.”
The importance of this “call for evidence” for the commission cannot be underestimated. For the commission to achieve balanced and fully representative recommendations, it needs evidence from all areas of the country and so it invites all to submit evidence on how the current refugee and asylum system affects refugees’ integration into wider society.
The Commission is still in its fledgling stages but hope is high that this unified approach will reap the increasingly necessary rewards. The Commission has personal significance for all 24 commissioners and others involved. The tone of the debate at the moment is unconducive to progress on either side and the desperation to see real and meaningful change was apparent during my conversation with Dr Kessler and Bishop McAleenan.
Dr Kessler ended our meeting with one final but poignant story. “I know from personal experience it is not easy,” he said. “Housing Syrian-Muslim refugees in a Jewish household was a real encounter. When my father died during the period that we had this family staying, they provided the food for what’s called the shiva, which is the kind of wake and sort of evening prayer. What a beautiful moment. A Syrian-Muslim family providing food for a Jewish family grieving.
“I do think it’s important to recognise that it’s not easy. Not just as a refugee, as we know, but that it’s not easy trying to help in a very difficult situation where everyone’s worried about their own finances and their own different pressures. But with that being said, we all have to stand up and be counted.”
To find out more about the Commission on the Integration of Refugees, visit refugeeintegrationuk.com.
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