Report

Why government should introduce an annual migration plan

This report from UK think tank the Institute for Government outlines how government could strengthen the process for developing immigration policy to better achieve its overall objectives. 

The government’s work to set out its plan for immigration in a white paper is an opportunity to more strategically reassess how migration policies are developed. In 2019, the Institute for Government made the case for government to publish an annual Migration Plan, setting out its objectives for the immigration system and how it aims to achieve them.

A range of organisations across the political spectrum – including the Home Affairs Select Committee,1 Labour Together,2 IPPR,3 British Future,4 the Centre for Policy Studies5 and Onward6 – have called for similar proposals. Governments around the world already pursue similar models: the Canadian and Australian governments each carry out annual processes to broker between different immigration policy priorities and articulate a multi-year strategy for migration. New Zealand’s Residence Programme, too, offers ideas for how policies can be enacted in this space.

This insight paper sets out in greater detail how an annual Migration Plan could work: what it should include, how it should be developed and how it could shape the public debate. It does not seek to propose specific policies relating to migration, but it outlines how government could strengthen the process for developing immigration policy to better achieve its overall objectives.

We are grateful to Open Society Foundations for supporting our research into this topic.