The research for Moving Up and Getting was undertaken in England. While immigration control and employment policy remains with the Westminster government, local government and education policy are delegated powers. Therefore there are some differences in policy on integration and social cohesion in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

There are proportionally fewer new migrants in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, with the proportion of those born abroad standing at 6.6% (Northern Ireland), 7% (Scotland) and 5.5% (Wales) in Census 2011, as compared to 13.8% in England. Proportionally smaller migrant populations have meant that integration and social cohesion were not priorities, until the dispersal of asylum-seekers at the end of the 1990s.

Many of the factors that have made integration and social cohesion difficult in England also apply in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. These include a lack of conceptual clarity, a poor evidence base and a focus on public sector interventions for unemployed refugees. However, integration policy in Scotland has been less of a hostage to public opinion, as compared with England, and the Scottish Government has been more willing publicly to support interventions targeted at migrants. It published its latest integration strategy in 2013 (Scottish Government, 2013). Interdepartmental coordination on integration and social cohesion is better in Scotland, as there are a smaller number of people and organisations responsible integration and they operate as a tight-knit policy community.

There are also geographical differences in attitudes to immigration, with data showing more positive attitudes in Scotland, as compared with England, Northern Ireland and Wales. There are still significant numbers of people who feel negatively about immigration in Scotland, but they form a smaller proportion of the population than in the rest of the UK (Blinder, 2011). Racially motivated crime appears higher in Northern Ireland than in many other parts of the UK, with 458 crimes with a racial motive recorded by the police in 2012 and many of the victims being new migrants to Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales all have their own Strategic Migration Partnerships. These organisations, like their English counterparts, have given some consideration to integration and social cohesion since they were founded in 2000.

The Northern Ireland Assembly has debated migration issues on occasions, but has no specific integration or social cohesion policy (Russell, 2012).