UK Borders Bill

I support this important suggestion of my noble friend Lord Roberts of Llandudno, because of my experience in having carried out a major investigation of immigration procedures when I worked at the Commission for Racial Equality. One of the biggest problems in the process of migration that we have faced in this country from the late 1940s and early 1950s onwards is that there has never been a planned system of migration. People have come in because they have had a right to come to this country; but apart from that, there has been no planning whatever—unlike in other countries which have planned migration, such as Australia. The result of this has been that the concentration of people has been limited to certain parts of the country and has, to an extent, created some of the difficult social problems in those areas. The only time that I remember the Government actually trying to do something positive was at the time of the expulsion of Ugandan Asians, when camps were set up to direct people to certain places. What is required—and this is what my noble friend is talking about—is a system whereby people coming to this country are able to understand what rights and privileges they could enjoy and what difficulties they may face. It might be that my noble friend’s suggestion could be carried out by British embassies abroad before people come to this country. That would be perfectly feasible. The noble Baroness, Lady Carnegy, is right to say that, wherever possible, the information should be in English, but I believe that my noble friend’s suggestion is to provide language training, so that people who come here are able to grasp our language, but to reach that stage, they may require information in the languages that they can speak. Overall, people must be able to communicate in the country in which they live in the language of that country, but, equally, they must be given access so that they are aware. I say that, because, from time to time, when you open newspapers in this country and read about migrants from east European countries, there are some very sorry tales about people living in overcrowded conditions and being exploited—some of them even use public conveniences for overnight accommodation. We need to recognise that they will contribute economically to this country. They are going to help us in expanding and building our economy. Anything that we could do to make that experience positive on the basis of my noble friend’s suggestion could go a long way. I know that the Government are always reluctant whenever good suggestions are made, and we have to fight for them, but this has very little cost implication and substantial implications in terms of mobility and the contribution that people from other countries can make to our economy.