A key message of this book is that political leadership is a facilitator of social cohesion. Leadership is essential to building social resilience and dealing with sources of tension associated with migration. The messages emanating from politicians also influence public attitudes. Leaders also shape the cultures of their political parties and their capacity to be a space for genuine debate about migration. This chapter examines these three prerequisites for social cohesion.

Leadership structures

In its review of the difficulties that successive governments have faced in implementing integration and social cohesion policy, Chapter Three highlights a lack of leadership and weak interdepartmental working on this issue in local authorities and, more acutely, within central government. Such an observation invites questions about the ideal structures of government needed to ensure effective policy. Looking outside the UK, Sweden has a minister for integration, who sits within the Department of Employment. One approach might be to appoint a minister with responsibility for integration and social cohesion within the Cabinet Office and give this department the lead responsibility for policy, in the same way as the Cabinet Office took forward social exclusion policy in the late 1990s. A second approach would be to appoint a junior minister for integration and social cohesion under the joint control of the Home Office and the DCLG. Although both policy areas require the cooperation of many more government departments, the appointment of a junior minister might make integration and social cohesion a higher-priority issue than at present.

But ambitious junior ministers have had a tendency to promote badly planned schemes that they hope will advance their careers. Reviewing the UK's record on equalities also suggests caution. There have been ministers for equality for a number of years, yet they have been side-lined. A minister for integration and social cohesion or a non-departmental government body also risks being side-lined unless the whole narrative about immigration changes, from the very top of politics to a local level. In the long term, interdepartmental working will be only improved if political leaders articulate positive messages about immigration and take a lead in developing coherent policy. Where there is clear national leadership, mainstream public services are more likely to acknowledge migrants and adapt to their needs.