Part of the UCL Policy & Practice seminar series. Recorded 21st March 2024 In this Policy and Practice event we will delve into the multifaceted issues surrounding the integration of immigrants in European countries. We will consider the cultural, social and economic barriers faced by immigrants, and the political pressures that sustain and, in some cases, strengthen these barriers. Participants from academia, civil society and party politics will explore effective policies to foster immigrant integration and consider how policies and strategies may need to evolve to address emerging challenges. Speakers: David Laitin is James T. Watkins IV and Elise V. Watkins Professor in the Department of Political Science at Stanford University. Marley Morris is Associate Director, Migration, Trade and Communities, at the Institute for Public Policy Research. Christabel Cooper is Director of Research at Labour Together. Dr Alex Hartman is Associate Professor in Political Science, UCL.

6

4/16/2024

EPISODE SUMMARY This week we ask: Do higher welfare benefits lead to higher immigration? EPISODE NOTES Immigration is back near the top of the political agenda, here in the UK and elsewhere. The UK government’s so-called ‘Stop the Boats Bill’, which targets those who cross the Channel in search of asylum, is one rather extreme manifestation of the idea that you can stop unwanted migration by making it unattractive. A wider expression of the same view is the concept of ‘benefit tourism’: the idea that migrants are more likely to come if welfare benefits are higher, and that and that you can therefore reduce immigration be keeping benefits low. Now, there are clearly questions to ask about whether such ideas are morally defensible, but it’s also important to ask whether they work on their own terms. And new research carried out here at UCL casts important doubt on that. We are joined by one of the co-authors of that research, Dr Moritz Marbach, Associate Professor in Data Science & Pub

2

7/11/2023

This week we’re examining the ways we talk about automation and immigration, and how this discourse shapes the economy. We ask: How far are discourses around immigration and automation tied to each other? What is the link between this rhetoric and the economic system known as ‘neo-liberalism’? Is the UK unique in our debates about robots and immigrants, and their effect on the labour market? Rhetoric around immigrants ‘stealing people’s jobs’ has become common in contemporary British politics, especially during the debates around the 2016 Brexit referendum. Meanwhile, rising automation has spurred discussion of how many jobs will be taken over by the ‘robots’. The ways we talk about these two threats of job losses can be strikingly similar and both pose questions about how the labour market will be structured in the future. A new book examining these discourses and their role in British economic and political debate, called Robots and Immigrants: Who Is Stealing Jobs?, was published

6

12/14/2022

This video gives students instructions on how to register with the police in the UK.

12043

4/16/2021