Keir Starmer’s recent speech on immigration has generated a good deal of controversy. In announcing a government white paper to cut legal migration, the prime minister said: “Nations depend on rules – fair rules. Sometimes they’re written down, often they’re not, but either way, they give shape to our values … Without them, we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together.”
As someone who has researched what gives people a sense of national belonging, I would argue there is evidence that Britain has become an “island of strangers” in the sense that people live increasingly isolated lives. But the problem has very little to do with migration.
