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A Reflection upon Immigration (using Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle)



SOME CONTEXT

I was asked to write a 1000 word essay on immigration in my foundation year at Wrexham University to practice essay writing. We used Gibbs' reflective cycle to structure the essay and approach a topic as touchy as immigration critically and rationally. I hope you find it interesting and informative!

Oliver Harflett, December 2024

Essay written April 2020


ESSAY

Immigration is simply the movement of people from one country (usually their native country) to another country which they are not originally from. It is a broad word which includes legal and illegal immigration, human trafficking, temporary residents, naturalised and unnaturalised citizens and even tourists.


In the UK, net immigration started to happen at an ever-increasing rate from the end of WW2 onwards according to the UK government (Sturge, 2020.) Attitudes towards first and second-generation immigrants in the UK have often been hostile, notably in areas of London in the 1970’s. However, geo-coded surveys have found that attitudes are now very inconsistent in the UK (Hopkins, 2011.) Matthew Goodwin (2017) of the Irish Times, a paper often supportive of immigration, believes that negative views on immigration was the most significant motivating factor in the UK voting to leave the European Union in 2016. In other words, psychological attitudes towards immigration have a dramatic effect upon government policy and human behaviour.


Many argue immigration was the biggest factor that motivated Britain's vote to leave the EU.

My personal views towards immigration are extremely conflicted. I will attempt to describe why in the description section and see if my view stands up to Gibbs' process of 'reflexivity' in the following sections.


Description of my view

I believe that immigration can be very beneficial to a society, but it has to be implemented wisely and carefully, which I do not believe has been the case in the UK at certain junctures (notably during Tony Blair’s administration.) When net immigration quotas have been very high, I believe social cohesion decreases and crime increases e.g. the Muslim prison population is at 16% whereas the Muslim population of the UK is at ~5% (Sturge, 2019.) Statistics show that housing demand goes up when net immigration is higher (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, 2018.)


Tony Blair's first cabinet in Downing Street, pictured 1997. Blair's extensive reforms to immigration and common law are controversial in Britain.

On the other hand, there are very large labour shortages in STEM, medicine and agriculture in the UK, which selective immigration alleviates. I also believe that educational standards are higher in non-UK countries which means immigrants in the labour market outperform non-immigrant citizens due to better training and education. I believe this is the fault of our education standards, not immigrants.


Feelings about my view

I feel that my views on immigration may appear contradictory, but I think for good reasons. Immigration is a complex issue, so to simplify a complex topic can distort the truth; the truth is more important than anything else...


However, I feel it would be useful to gain more clarity on immigration by reflecting upon it. I feel my current views are based on my own empiricism, my interest in politics, sociology, culture, history, my values and beliefs, my upbringing and my own research.


Evaluation of my view

In order to evaluate views, I will try to see what the most recent and objective data says about how immigration affects crime rate and social cohesion in the Western world. I will also read editorials in ‘well-regarded’ publications that may argue against my beliefs with evidence (hopefully.)


Analysis of my view

Studies that try to observe how social cohesion is affected by immigration are flawed in several ways. One is that many studies focus more on the relationship of diversity and social cohesion, rather than immigration and social cohesion, meaning it is difficult to prove or disprove the statement “immigration negatively affects social cohesion.” Nevertheless, these studies are still somewhat helpful because diversity is usually a by-product of immigration (Bove & Elia, 2017.)


Another problem is there is no universally accepted definition of social cohesion, so it is difficult to clearly measure what researchers are measuring (Demireva, 2020.) Most of the evidence is based on statistical outcomes more than attitudes. In other words, a lot of available data is quantitative, even though I believe qualitative data could be even more insightful.


Nevertheless, a good guideline to go by is Forrest & Kearns’ (2001) definition of social cohesion. To summarise, they believe that common values and a civic culture are the most important indicators of cohesion, along with social order, reductions in wealth disparities and solidarity. So what does the data say?


The data is very mixed and varies from country to country. In the US, research has often pointed towards a negative relationship between immigration and social cohesion. For example, two American researchers observed that trust of neighbours declined with diversity (Costa & Khan, 2003.) Interestingly, Costa & Khan also observed that when neighbours trusted each other less, they engaged in local politics much less.


Other studies showed that interpersonal trust was significantly lower in ethnically heterogenous (diverse) communities than in ethnically homogeneous communities (Alesina and La Ferrara 2000, 2005). Interestingly, another study in both Canada and the US showed a strong negative relationship with diversity and trust. They also observed that attitudes could become neutral if people made contact in any way e.g. greeting in the street, smiling at one another, etc. (Stolle, Soroka and Johnston, 2008.)


The famous inscription under the Statue of Liberty reminds people across the world that America is a nation of immigrants with its famous 'Melting Pot' - the concept that from many places, creeds, beliefs and races, they melt into one American people. One of America's official mottoes is 'e pluribus unum' - 'from many, one.'

The data in Europe is more contradictory and inconclusive than in the US, partly because Europe is much more linguistically, culturally, nationally and ethnically diverse than North America despite having a similar landmass and population. In the UK, various research based upon data obtained from the 2005 Citizenship Survey have come to different conclusions. (I believe this is a testament to what I said earlier – that immigration is a very complex issue.) Laurence and Heath (2008) concluded that there is no significant negative effect on social cohesion caused by diversity in UK communities when socio-economic conditions are taken into account. However, Laurence (2014) in another study observed a negative relationship between rising diversity in neighbourhoods and trust between neighbours.


An interesting report shows just how mixed views on immigration (and diversity) are in the UK. They observed that when ‘new arrivals’ contributed to infrastructure or public services, nearly all participants had positive attitudes towards these new arrivals. On the other hand, attitudes were very hostile towards asylum-seekers in resource-deprived areas due to perceived advantages asylum-seekers have in obtaining housing. The researchers also noted that resentment was usually towards the asylum-seeker and not towards housing policies. Also, a Glaswegian informant to the researchers said that he believed providing asylum-seekers with housing helped them integrate into society much more quickly. But a counterargument to this opinion was the researchers’ observation that not all schools in the UK could provide for asylum-seekers’ or first-generation children’s linguistic needs in education, which was a source of stress and tension (Hickman, Crowley and Mai, 2008.) One potential flaw of this study is its reliance on informants – meaning the data used is indirectly obtained - it is more likely that there is biased and/or inaccurate information than if data was directly obtained from participants.


Social housing (state-funded housing) under construction in Glasgow.

(The evidence on the European continent appears to show a more negative correlation between diversity/immigration and social cohesion than in the US or UK. There is also a disproportionately high amount of crime committed by immigrants in European countries, especially in Germany and Sweden. However, this word count does not allow me to analyse this in-depth here; please just know that statistics and research show this trend more clearly than in the US or UK. (Federal Criminal Police Office, 2017) (Federal Ministry of the Interior, 2015.)


Conclusion on my analysis

In conclusion, after this analysis I still believe immigration is an incredibly complex issue and must be treated as such. This is because qualitative studies seem to come to very different conclusions about the relationship between immigration and social cohesion. It is also very difficult to accurately measure the rate of crime committed by immigrants because there are so many variables to account for, one of them being what the precise definition of foreign born, immigrant, alien etc. actually are. This means that any statistical, quantitative study is based on a flimsy, unclear definition (that being the term 'immigrant.')


Based upon the information available, I do believe crime goes up when immigration quotas are very high e.g. In 2016, 30.5% of all crime in Germany was committed by foreign-borns, who made up 10% of the population (Federal Criminal Police Office, 2017.) This is after Germany’s decision to let in around 1 million asylum-seekers in 2015 (OECD, 2015.) However, I also believe there is evidence social cohesion can stabilise, even strengthen when immigration is more controlled and less abrupt (Hickman et al., 2008.) Despite how much conflicting research there is, none of the research contradicts my original view to begin with (in the Description section.)


The Schengen Area (in dark blue) is a border-free area within Europe. Germany's decision to let in around 1 million immigrants in 2015 was controversial and opposed by many Schengen Area countries. Poland and Hungary were particularly hostile to Germany's decision.

'Action Plan'

I still maintain a very ambivalent and mixed view towards immigration into the Western world. After doing my research, I have become even more hesitant to ever read, let alone cite any media outlet for information on social issues. Almost everything stated from any media outlet is not referenced, substantiated or verified. I have also developed a mistrust of government statistics - every independent study available stated that Germany’s 2015 net immigration quota was much higher than what the German government said publicly (referenced below.)


References

Alesina, A. and Ferrara, E.L. (2008). Participation in Heterogeneous Communities.

Quarterly Journal of Economics 115, 47-904


Costa, D. L. and Khan, M. E. (2003) Civic Engagement and Community

Heterogeneity: An Economist’s Perspective. Perspectives on Politics 1, 103-111


Demireva, N. (December 13 2019). Immigration, Diversity and Social Cohesion.

Retrieved on April 27 from The Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford

diversity-and-social-cohesion/


Elia Bove V., and Elia L. (January 2017). Migration, Diversity, and Economic Growth.

World Development 89, 227-239. DOI:


Federal Criminal Police Office. (July 12 2017). Interactive maps - PKS 2016.

Retrieved on 11 May 2020 from the Bundeskriminalamt website:

nalstatistik/PKS2016/InteraktiveKarten/interaktiveKartenPKS2016_node.html


Federal Ministry of the Interior. (August 19 2017). Number of asylum seekers

reaches new all-time high. Retrieved on May 11 2020 from the Bundesministerium

des Innern für Bau und Heimat website:

asylprognose-vorgelegt.html


Forrest, R. and A. Kearns. (2001). “Social Cohesion, Social Capital and the

Neighbourhood.” Urban Studies 38(12). 2125-2143


Gibbs G. (1988) Learning by Doing: a guide to teaching and learning methods.

Oxford, UK. Further Education Unit


Goodwin M. (May 15 2017). Why immigration was key to Brexit vote. Irish Times.

Retrieved on April 25 2020 from https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/why-

immigration-was-key-to-brexit-vote-1.3083608


Hickman, M., Crowley, H. and Mai, N. (July 21 2008). Immigration and social

cohesion in the UK. Retrieved on May 5 2020 from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation

report


Hopkins D.J. (July 2011) National Debates, Local Responses: The Origins of Local

Concern about Immigration in Britain and the United States. British Journal of

Political Science 41(3), 499-524


Laurence, J. (2014). Reconciling the contact and threat hypotheses: does ethnic

diversity strengthen or weaken community inter-ethnic relations?. Ethnic and Racial

Studies 37(8)


Laurence, J. and Heath, A. (2008) Predictors of Community Cohesion: Multi-Level

Modelling of the 2005 Citizneship Survey. Department for Communities and Local

Government, London.


Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Analysis of the

determinants of house price changes. (2018). 4-5. Retrieved on April 28 2020 from

ment_data/file/699846/OFF_SEN_Ad_Hoc_SFR_House_prices_v_PDF.pdf


OECD. (January 13 2017). Who bears the cost of integrating refugees? Migration

Policy Debates 13. Retrieved on May 12 2020 from the OECD website:


Stolle, D., Soroka, S. and Johnston, R. (2008). When Does Diversity Erode Trust?

Neighborhood Diversity, Interpersonal Trust and the Mediating Effect of Social

Interactions. Political Studies 56, 57-75


Sturge G. (July 23 2019). Number CBP-04334: UK Prison Population Statistics.

Retrieved on April 28 2020 from


Sturge G. (March 6 2020). Number CBP06077: Migration Statistics. Retrieved on

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