Summary
In the past decade, Britain has experienced mass immigration on an unprecedented scale. A former government aide recently suggested this was a deliberate policy, motivated in part by a desire to increase racial diversity. David Goodhart investigates the ideological forces behind one of the most significant social changes to have affected the UK.
Andrew Neather, a former Number 10 speechwriter, recently wrote a much-discussed article in the Evening Standard in praise of multicultural London, but suggesting that those who have influenced immigration policy under Labour were politically-programmed to be relaxed about such numbers. His article was immediately seized upon by anti-immigration campaigners as evidence of a conspiracy to make Britain a more racially diverse society.
In this programme, David Goodhart investigates the truth about reasons for recent increases in migration to Britain. Political insiders, including former home secretary David Blunkett, talk candidly about the real influences behind the scenes. None of them give credence to the accusation that there was a plan to create a more multicultural Britain. An unexpected increase in asylum applications and the demand for cheap labour from employers were the main motivators, according to those who influenced policy. But, admits former Home Office special adviser Ed Owen, a nervousness about discussing immigration policy meant that New Labour was, in its first years in office, poorly prepared to deal with the issue.
We may not have witnessed a grand act of social engineering, concludes David Goodhart, but New Labour's combination of economic liberalism and cultural liberalism led it to regard mass immigration as a trend which would bring great social benefits and few disadvantages.
Interviewees include:
Rt Hon David Blunkett MP, former home secretary
Tim Finch, head of migration, equalities and citizenship, and director of strategic communications at the Institute for Public Policy Research
Andrew Neather, Comment editor at The Evening Standard and former Number 10 speechwriter.
Sir Andrew Green, Migrationwatch
Sarah Spencer, deputy director, Centre on Migration Policy and Society
John Tincey, Immigration Services Union
Ed Owen, former Home Office special adviser
Claude Moraes MEP.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | Thank you for downloading this program from the BBC. |
| 0:40.0 | Analysis is off air at the moment so we thought we'd give you a chance to hear a previous program. |
| 0:45.0 | This program was originally broadcast in February 2010, towards the end of the last parliament. |
| 0:51.7 | In it we look back at the 13 years of Labour government |
| 0:55.0 | and ask why it was a period of unprecedented levels of immigration. |
| 0:59.0 | Was it policy accident or design? |
| 1:02.0 | The presenter is David Goodhart, who is now the director of the Think Tank Demos. I'm walking through a market in West London. |
| 1:17.0 | I'm walking through a market in West London. |
| 1:19.0 | It's a good example of multiracial Britain. |
| 1:28.2 | I'm surrounded by Poles and Somalis, West Africans, Jamaicans, there are women in burkers. Like many parts of the country, this corner of London has been |
| 1:34.8 | transformed by mass immigration over the last 15 years. This second great |
| 1:40.5 | post-war migration is one of the most significant and unexpected aspects of |
| 1:45.2 | labour rule since 1997. But this is not another program about the pros and cons of mass immigration. |
| 1:51.8 | Rather it's asking a more basic question. pros and cons of mass immigration. |
| 1:52.8 | Rather it's asking a more basic question. |
| 1:55.2 | Why did it happen at all? |
... |
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