Settlement visas for dependent relatives

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Churches back campaign to end detention of families seeking sanctuary

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Prime Minister sets out new immigration measures

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Immigration is not out of control: Gordon Brown

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UK to stop issuing driving licences to failed asylum seekers

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UK gets lowest number of asylum applications in 18 years

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Religious leaders call for election pledges to end child detention

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Migrants vital for success of UK companies

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Fewer asylum seekers and immigrants arrive in UK

The Guardian – The number of new asylum seekers coming to Britain has plummeted by 30% in the past year and the flow of central and east European migrants, including from Poland, has also continued to decline, according to the 2009 immigration figures published today.

However, the Office of National Statistics said there was little change in the pattern of long-term migration to Britain with 518,000 people coming to the UK to live, work or study in the year to June 2009 and 370,000 leaving to live abroad.

This gives a net migration figure of 147,000 for the year to June 2009 — a decline from the net migration figure of 168,000 the previous year and further undermining claims that Britain’s population will hit 70 million by 2029.

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Repent over child migrants: Gordon Brown warned

Ekklesia – Gordon Brown’s apology in the House of Commons today is likely to be met with debate and comment about the extent to which a political leader can apologise for the wrongdoings of another government. It has certainly done so in the past over such issues as the transatlantic slave trade.

Those children, now adults, who suffered terrible abuse under the Child Migrants Programme from the 1920s to the 1960s during which more than 130,000 were sent to former colonies, are likely to value the apology.

When there is talk of apology, our conceptions of justice also tend to lead the focus to punishment for previous offences. Who was responsible? How will they be dealt with? Whilst questions of accountability are important, they miss the big picture. Christian theology helps in this. At the heart of Christian ideas of justice is the idea of atonement, or at-one-ment. This is not about laying guilt and blame, indeed the liberation from such things is the objective. It is primarily about making things right again – as much as they can be.

And this is why the “R” word is also important. ‘Repentance’ is something which many liberals shy away from, and many conservatives misinterpret. In the minds of many it conjures up pictures of flagellation and sackcloth and ashes. In this context it doesn’t at first glance seem relevant, as Brown is focusing attention on something that didn’t happen on his watch.

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