Promises and Policy Targets

Quote:

“We promise according to our hopes, and perform according to our fears.”  Francois duc de la Rochefoucauld (1613-1680)

News: 

London Metropolitan University (LMU) had its visa license revoked this week by the UK Border Agency, requiring all non-EU students there to find another university or face deportation.  The announcement came on the same day the official migration statistics revealed persistently high immigration levels to UK.

Cutting foreign student visas (which account for 40% of all immigration) may appear to be a quick way to reduce the number of migrants, which is how the present government frames its immigration policy – to reduce net migration to under 100,000 per year by 2015.   

However, students are short-term migrants, and most will leave again in a few years when their courses finish.  So this week’s decision will scarcely dent long-term net migration, but will do considerable harm to the reputation of the university sector in the UK, which depends on the higher fees paid by overseas students.

Any system is open to abuse, whether that is welfare, insurance, taxation or immigration.  A government is right to root out bogus claims on its resources, but must ensure all the genuine cases are supported.  Blunt instruments often create more problems than they solve, and it remains to be seen what collateral damage the UKBA’s response to the problems at LMU will have.

Britain needs skilled foreign workers, and its universities need the income brought by overseas students.  But more than workers or finance, Britain needs good relationships internationally, with individuals, organisations and governments of other nations.  These are built, in part, by keeping promises – such as being trustworthy in delivering the higher education courses offered to overseas students. 

The country will be better off when the government puts the long term relational impact of policy decisions ahead of being seen to do something when adverse statistics are published.

Read on…

The Jubilee Centre recently published a report on a Christian response to immigration, with a particular focus on the British context.  You can access the report here.  

Walk the talk:

When a situation starts to get out of hand, it is tempting to resort to severe measures to get it back in control, at the expense of addressing the underlying relational issues which contribute to it.  Is there any situation facing you which would benefit from this insight?

The last word:

From the Bible, Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 12: “Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.”