Home Affairs select committee to hold “citizen-assembly style” events on immigration
Citizens with different views on immigration will be asked to come together to debate the trade-offs between legal migration and economic growth in a series of events being planned by the Home Affairs Select Committee.
The House of Commons committee is undertaking the “citizens’ assembly” style events with 100 people across three locations to better understand people’s considered views and where areas of consensus might be formed. The Committee will then use the results to inform its scrutiny of this contested area of government policy.
The Committee will be partnering with Demos and King’s College Londo’s Policy Institute and Centre for British Democracy to deliver the deliberative workshops across the country. Members of the public, reflecting the breadth of the local community, will be invited to come together to examine the complex range of factors that influence public policy decisions and the challenges of reducing the numbers of legal migrants.
With the Government pledging to reduce inward migration and deliver economic growth, the sessions will explore the trade-offs that are involved in balancing the goal of reducing net migration with workforce needs of business and the public sector.
Over the coming months, participants in Leicester, North Tyneside and Renfrewshire will take part in three deliberative events over different weekends. Participants will have the opportunity to hear from experts as well as talk to fellow residents with different views to explore the extent of consensus on preferred ways to tackle this longstanding policy challenge.
To ensure a diverse range of contributions, the Committee will work with delivery partners to recruit a group of participants that reflects the local population. There will not be a process for members of the apply to take part.
The processes will be deliberative workshops, in which a cross section of the public are asked to reach shared conclusions and find common ground on an often contested policy question. They are given balanced information from experts in an easy to understand and accessible way to help navigate the issues. They are styled on the model of Citizens’ Assemblies, but shorter in length than the established deliberative method used across the world. 105 residents will take part, with 35 in each location.
Chair of the Home Affairs Committee, Dame Karen Bradley said:
“On the Home Affairs Committee, we dedicate much of our time to scrutinising immigration policy, and it is vital that we ensure our deliberations focus on the things that matter to people most. We know that immigration is an issue of great importance across the country and that people’s experiences may be very different in different places. It is something that touches on many aspects of our day to day lives – the communities we live in, the services we use and the wider economy.
“We want to do this in a measured way, taking time to consider the many complex questions and trade-offs involved in making policy and gaining a better understanding of people’s views in different places and seeing where consensus can be found. We will use the results of this work to inform our scrutiny of Government policy over the rest of the Parliament.”
Director of Participatory Programmes at Demos, Miriam Levin said:
“Immigration is an issue of great concern to the public, but too often policy is shaped without meaningful engagement with them. These workshops offer an opportunity to do things differently, creating a space for citizens with different views to come together across the
country, to weigh up real trade-offs and have their voices heard. At a time when trust in politics is fragile, deliberative approaches like this are essential to rebuild confidence in democracy. By unlocking the perspectives of those who may not usually be heard, and enabling people to find common ground, we can build a more open, responsive and resilient democracy.”
–ENDS–
Media queries
House of Commons – George Perry, [email protected], 020 7219 8430
Demos – Lottie Skeggs, [email protected], 0203 878 3955
Further information