Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 20
20
Accepted
Paragraph: 94
Begin routinely collecting information on reasons migrants seek to journey to the UK.
Recommendation
It is surprising that the Home Office does not routinely collect information on why asylum seekers and other migrants seek to journey to the UK. We recommend that it begin to do so, to form a sound evidence basis for future policy-making.
Government Response Summary
The government states that while asylum claimants are asked why they chose the UK, a project is underway to automate the extraction of this information from transcripts to enable future quantitative analysis for policy-making.
Paragraph Reference:
94
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
As part of the asylum screening process, claimants are currently asked why they have chosen to claim asylum in the UK, but there is currently no way to produce robust quantitative statistics from this. A project is underway to automate the extraction of text information from existing transcripts which could feed into a future project to analyse why asylum seekers have chosen the UK and the UK’s pull factors. Notwithstanding that project, it is clear from the asylum interviews we undertake a migrant’s aspiration (push and pull factors) and capability to migrate can fluctuate and will vary across and within different groups. Those push factors range from genuine persecution, conflict and war to interpersonal conflict, employment opportunities and the pull factors ranging from safety and refuge through to family ties, language, an existing diaspora and economic stability and earning potential. For many, the balance of factors is shaped by their country of origin – with the largest group at present from Albania, a safe country and prospective EU member. We also recognise that migrants also make decisions based on their perceptions, which may not reflect reality.