APPGs report on incoming asylum & immigration reforms & effects on poverty published today by APPG on Poverty & @appgmigration.bsky.social - appgmigration.org.uk/appgs-publis...

APPGs Publish New Report on the Effects of Recent Changes to Immigration, Asylum and Refugee Policy on Poverty and Inequality.  - All-Party Parliamentary Group on Migration

The APPG on Migration and the APPG on Poverty and Inequality are pleased to publish our  new joint report, The Effects of Recent Changes to Immigration, Asylum and Refugee Policy on Poverty and Inequa...

appgmigration.org.uk

When something is so obviously a terrible idea, it is ok to just...say no thanks and ban it. We don't have to wait 15 years and then slowly ban if after a whole bunch of irreperable damage has been done to individuals and society.

As part of a package of reforms to the UK’s asylum system, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced a community sponsorship route for refugees to come to the UK. Writing for The Conversation, @jacquibroadhead.bsky.social reflects on the new scheme. 🔗 theconversation.com/community-re...

Community refugee sponsorship: how the Home Office can get its new safe-and-legal route right

Britain has some limited experience with community sponsorship.

theconversation.com

You could search for years and still never find something that Trump cannot strip of its beauty. It’s an extraordinary gift

Adam Schwarz@adamjschwarz.bsky.social · last mo.

Trump says that if Belgium beat the US while Folarin Balogun was suspended, he would have claimed, “It was rigged, just like the election was rigged in 2020.”

Windrush Lessons Learnt: "Warning signs and messages...were not heeded. Instead the policy was promoted because of a resolute conviction that it would be effective and should be vigorously pursued. Warnings by external stakeholders, individuals and organisations were not given enough consideration."

Jonathan Portes@jdportes.bsky.social · last mo.

Summary of the Home Office Impact Assessment for Asylum Bill is hilarious (if it weren't so depressing). HO analysts say "basically no evidence to suggest *any* of these policies will work *even on their own terms*" (but will probably cost money). assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a43e1...

This is a big problem. If the last information people receive is always “numbers went up” because “numbers went down” is never reported we shouldn’t be surprised that perceptions about immigration end up so skewed. Media should take some responsibility here - this is a salient and polarising issue.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · last mo.

Revealed preferences suggest this 37% drop in small boat nunbers (first two quarters) is treated as ×10-x50 times less newsworthy than a 37% increase has been. Given high salience of the issue, should broadcasters try to check/balance that instinct?

Coverage for a new report from @hepi-news.bsky.social looking at languages provision in schools www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/07/01/n...

Revealed preferences suggest this 37% drop in small boat nunbers (first two quarters) is treated as ×10-x50 times less newsworthy than a 37% increase has been. Given high salience of the issue, should broadcasters try to check/balance that instinct?

The @icibi.bsky.social report published last week sets out just what a poor state asylum decision making is in. That is what drives the appeals backlog and accommodation costs. Nothing in any of these so called “reforms” does anything to address that. It only risks pulling resource elsewhere.

It’s hard enough to run a functioning asylum system, but the package of polices the Government is enacting on the refugee tax, temporary leave and longer settlement means the Home Office will need a whole new system for refugees as well, up to and beyond 20 years after they have been granted.

"The Home Office estimates that the benefits will outweigh the costs, though this can not be evidenced at this time"

A future classic of the genre.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · last mo.

The government shortlisted two policy options, according to its impact assessment. Option zero: Do nothing Option one: full implementation of all of the measures in the bill. As doing nothing woukd not pursue its goals, it chose to proceed.

The government shortlisted two policy options, according to its impact assessment. Option zero: Do nothing Option one: full implementation of all of the measures in the bill. As doing nothing woukd not pursue its goals, it chose to proceed.

I think the lesson here is that capital regeneration infrastructure has to run alongside renewed social infrastructure (both public services and civil society), the latter has to be done though long term devolved funding settlements, rather than more one-off regeneration projects.

Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · last mo.

This is v good from @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social and Chris Smyth on something I've written about before - regeneration funding doesn't seem to work politically. www.ft.com/content/a108...

Posted without comment

Do politically difficult things, it's worth it.

Will Norman@willnorman.co.uk · last mo.

Many said we couldn’t do it. Data says we have. Toxic air-related deaths in London have dropped by 40%. 👏👏 @sadiqkhanlondon.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

New Lords report on Integration supports the commitment by MHCLG to develop an integration strategy, but notes a lack of urgency to do so. This is a consistent theme in integration policy making, seemingly forever destined for the back of the queue. publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5902/ld...

New Lords committee report on the UK’s proposed changes to the system for earning permanent residence, and discussing settlement/citizenship more generally committees.parliament.uk/committee/51...

It's such a defining example of his failure. Had he arrived in Downing Street and immediately announced it as a moral imperative it would have won over much of PLP and voter coalition.

David Beech@davidbeech.bsky.social · last mo.

In the list of 'achievements' the biggest was probably ending the two child cap which Starmer and Reeves had to be dragged kicking and screaming into finally ending which pretty much sums up his time in office. It's sad for him I'm sure but he's been a massive disappointment no getting around that.

📢 NEW BLOG: The Windrush scandal was "foreseeable and avoidable". Eight years on, what should it teach us about earned settlement? Our latest blog argues the best way to honour the Windrush Generation is to ensure the same mistakes are never repeated 👇 www.ippr.org/articles/win...

One thing we mean when we talk about "stronger social norms" is racist chants, slurs not seen as normal by most normal people. Football did more than anything else to put the idea of "zero tolerance" into practice. Elon Musk's X is doing more/trying harder than anyone else to renormalise racism

When utilized in literature review, LLMs consistently 1. fail to mention female authors in female-led literatures, 2. insist that men are more influential or more heavily cited when this is contradicted by objective citation counts, and 3. attribute women’s work to hallucinated male scholars.

Having spoken to social care workers affected by the changes, I *hate* this language. Party management/vibes is a terrible way to make policy at the best of times but when the futures of several hundred thousand people is at stake, unforgiveable.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Politco suggests the Home Secretary is finally going to concede/retreat on the central plank of the settlement reforms - as a "sop" to the left - to try to stay in her post. This sop is not making it impossible for a few hundred thousand legal migrants to retain legal status in the UK after 2028

Excited for #epss2026, where I'll share work about immigrants' occupational essentialness and public views on welfare: Friday, 10.50, Broadway (Hilton). With stellar coauthors @jacquibroadhead.bsky.social @mfreino.bsky.social @deniskierans.bsky.social @isabel-ruiz.bsky.social @msumption.bsky.social

Research on socio-economic duty implementation ahead of introduction in England (EHRC, 2025). The socio-economic duty has been introduced in Scotland and in Wales, and this is now due to happen in England. www.equalityhumanrights.com/media-centre...

NEW The end of the failed Rwanda asylum scheme An arbitration decision gives the UK a lucky final victory, but more than £250m has already been lost My latest at @prospectmagazine.co.uk www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

The end of the failed Rwanda asylum scheme

An arbitration decision gives the UK a lucky final victory, but more than £250m has already been lost

prospectmagazine.co.uk

This is *such* a consistent feature of living in the UK - the actual day to day experience of people in this country is so much nicer than what the press or our leadership cadre would have you think - it is remarkable in a somewhat destabilising fashion just how stark the difference is.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The media & political classes (left + right) tend to guess wrong about the public - who have a *much* stronger common sense consensus on civic "inclusive nativism" than most of the commentariat seem to realise

New Public Accounts Committee report on the asylum system. Striking how many of the recommendations focus on the urgent need for the Home Office to make much better links with MHCLG and local government. committees.parliament.uk/publications...

DfE pupil data is out today and shows that the number of private school pupils has dropped 5.6% since VAT was introduced. Not 25% like the independent schools council predicted. Or the 50% we saw in some right-wing papers. 5.6%.

Important considerations on immigration changes in relation to both their retrospective nature and the lack of parliamentary scrutiny of them.

Shaina Sangha@shaina-sangha.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Home Sec using secondary powers from a 1970s immigration act to enact sweeping changes to ILR. This will put many people (and the govt) in legal peril. New @instituteforgovernment.org.uk piece from me on this. N.B. Burnham has said these changes should go ahead. tinyurl.com/3snksf3r