This paper presents opportunities to upgrade democracy – to address the ‘democratic doom loop’ of mistrust, disengagement and political ineffectiveness – through setting out a practical route to detoxify one of the most polarised policy issues – immigration. 

It outlines how large-scale public deliberation can help get beyond incendiary media headlines and social media noise, to surface the opinions of the ‘silent centre ground’. This in turn will lead to immigration reform that can earn public consent, as a representative cross-section of the public has been involved in creating it. The paper calls for government to commission a national deliberative process – a citizens’ assembly – on earned settlement, and to pilot place-based deliberative processes on integration and social cohesion.

Key findings

• Immigration is among the most consistently salient issues in British politics.
• The United Kingdom Government’s recent proposals represent some of the most significant changes to long-term immigration status in decades.
• Public attitudes towards immigration are more nuanced than headlines and political debate suggests.
• The 'silent centre ground' is often obscured by political narratives and media framings that benefit the louder and more extreme ends of the argument.
• Deliberative public participation processes are designed to address the kinds of value-laden questions raised by immigration reform.

Recommendations

1. Make public trust and legitimacy an explicit objective of settlement and integration reform.
2. Commission a national deliberative process on earned settlement.
3. Pilot place-based deliberative processes on integration and cohesion.
4. Embed deliberation within immigration policymaking.