Comment

Time for an honest debate about the impact of migration on public services

school
Schools have to educate more pupils

Although they are often reluctant to say so clearly, the argument that many in the Remain campaign make for continued British membership of the European Union is rooted in the claim that mass immigration is good for Britain. Pro-EU luminaries including Mark Carney of the Bank of England speak airily of the benefits of “flexible labour markets” and the effect on abstract concepts such as gross domestic product of the arrival of hundreds of thousands of people in this country every year. 

They do not mention the other effects of mass migration, such as the impact on public services. As we reveal today, the free movement of people from elsewhere in the EU has contributed to significant growth in the number of children that our schools must accommodate and teach. Parents unable to send their children to their preferred schools or whose offspring are taught in overcrowded classrooms could be forgiven for wondering whether the alleged economic benefits of a liberal migration policy are being reflected in the resources available to the state education system.

This problem is particularly acute in areas where migrant workers have congregated in large numbers: local councils in such places are still not properly compensated by central government for the resultant effect on public services. Last year’s Conservative manifesto rightly promised a new “Controlling Migration Fund” to ease pressure on services. That promise should be implemented as quickly as possible.

One reason that Whitehall’s financial mechanisms have not adjusted to deal with the impact of immigration is that the politicians who oversee those mechanisms were wary of talking about those impacts. It remains true that those who ask questions about immigration and its effects run the risk of sneers or worse from the BBC and other “liberal” institutions. Public debate has been constrained, and public policy has been worse for it.

The EU referendum is therefore to be celebrated, because it offers an opportunity to have a sensible, open and fact-based national conversation about the immigration that comes with EU membership. Leave campaigners such as Priti Patel have joined that debate over school places. We hope that the Remain camp will show equal candour when discussing this vitally important issue. 

 

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