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King's Speech: Will European partners be more willing to collaborate on small boats

Professor Nando Sigona reflects on the King's Speech and what it means for immigration policy.

18 July 2024•1 min read
A small boat at sea overloaded with passengers sits low in the water

“According to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), net migration is projected to go down from the record levels we witnessed under Rishi Sunak. Labour says that reducing net migration is one of their goals, which makes it a relatively easy fruit to pick. But this won't have much to do with the proposed strategy to link skills shortages to skills training of domestic workers, simply because there are not enough domestic workers to upskill to fuel the economic growth which the Labour government is committed to.

Labour dropped the Rwanda Plan as anticipated and refocused the strategy to stop irregular crossings on the war on smugglers. It is unclear how much the proposed Border Security Commander will be different from the Clandestine Channel Threat Commander created by the previous government. What is likely to be different is the willingness of European partners to collaborate with the UK in the context of the broader resetting of EU-UK relations announced in the King’s Speech."

Notes for editors

  • For media inquiries please contact Ellie Hail, Communications Officer, University of Birmingham on +44 (0)7966 311 409. Out-of-hours, please call +44 (0) 121 414 2772.

  • The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, teachers and more than 8,000 international students from over 150 countries.

Featured staff

  • Professor Nando Sigona

    Chair of International Migration and Forced Displacement

    Professor Nando Sigona is a sociologist with research and teaching experience in migration, refugee and ethnic studies. He is also the Director of the Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS).

    Phone: +44(0)121 415 8030
    Email: n.sigona@bham.ac.uk

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