Tickets are free but places are limited. Register for tickets via Partiful here.

Why can’t we get net migration down?
Tuesday 14th May, 6:30pm – 8:00pm, Public Hall, 1 Horse Guards Ave, London SW1A 2HU

Though successive governments have repeatedly promised to reduce net migration to the “tens of thousands”, the numbers are now at record highs. Recent figures show the yearly figure to be around 670,000, four or five times what it was three years ago.

Some argue that this level of migration is a necessary response to labour shortages and sluggish growth in our economy. The real problem – they argue – is the lack of investment in education and occupational training, or otherwise the UK’s welfare and tax system which is said to discourage native Brits from working. In either case, they are acting on the belief that the arrival of each newcomer marks the arrival of a new worker with the ability to inject ideas and energy into our otherwise stagnant society. As time goes on, and the number of new arrivals continues to rise, it is increasingly important that we test whether this assumption is correct.

But recent ONS data raises doubts about this hypothesis. Of the 2 million people who came to Britain from outside the EU over the last 5 years, it is said that only 15% did so explicitly to work. Public opinion leans in the same direction, with polls showing that the majority of the population want migration numbers to come down – and have done so for over a decade. So why hasn’t it?

Join Civic Future to discuss all of this and more.

Speakers:

Tim Leunig, prize-winning economist, LSE professor, writer, former senior civil servant and special advisor.
Lord Glasman, writer, founder of Blue Labour, director of the Common Good Foundation and Labour life peer.
Poppy Coburn, writer and assistant comment editor at the Telegraph.
Luke Sheridan, researcher at the Common Good Foundation.

Chair: Munira Mirza, chief executive, Civic Future