CERES Director Prof. Randall Hansen gave the 2015 Political Studies Association Annual Leonard Schapiro Lecture in Sheffield, UK on 30 March 2015. The lecture was entitled, “Making Immigration Work: How Britain and Europe Can Overcome their Immigration Crises” and was chaired by Prof. Paul Taggart of the University of Sussex

Click here to view the full video.

Abstract

Few debates in politics are characterized by such a large gap between rhetoric and reality as the migration debate, and for this the political left and right bear roughly equally guilt. Indeed, almost every major claim advanced in favour or against migration – that it makes us rich, that it costs the Exchequer vast quantities of money, that it will solve our demographic problems, that it is a significant threat to the welfare state – is false. Immigration’s effects are not transformative; they are, rather, distributional, rewarding some individuals while punishing others, and benefiting some levels of government while costing others. How this works in practice depends on the skill sets migrants have, the generosity of national welfare systems, and how that migration is managed. Against this backdrop, the lecture will argue that migration can work when it is controlled and is seen to be controlled, when there is a clear framework of rules for negotiating those cultural conflicts that do occur, and above all when the primary emphasis is not on identity and culture but on work.