Today's blog post is written by public affairs intern Chris McLaurin

Prime Minister David Cameron last week argued that immigrants unable to speak English or unwilling to integrate have created a "kind of discomfort and disjointedness" that has disrupted communities across Britain.

Speaking to an audience of conservative activist in Hampshire, the Prime Minister vowed to “undo the damage” he claims the Labour government caused by setting immigration “too high”. 

The PM conflated the issues of welfare dependency and immigration by claiming that a “woeful welfare system” has disincentivised work and created the problem of many low skilled migrant workers picking up the slack.   

Runnymede Director Rob Berkeley responded to Cameron’s speech in the Independent on Sunday by arguing that the PM’s comments lacked an interest in addressing the reality of the immigration situation in the UK. He stated: “The Tories' lack of interest in the reality behind the numbers has done very little other than to confuse people further and triangulate the British National Party (BNP).”

He added: “Whether 200,000 people have arrived in the UK in the last year or not is simply not the issue. Nearly a million people are out of work and the bigger structural issues of the government are being disrupted by an immigration debate that suggests short-term thinking and electioneering.”

Don Flynn, Director of the Migrants’ Rights Network, also responded to the speech on his blog. He argued: “Like a lot of political speechifying, you wipe away the gloss and there’s not much substance left behind. A farrago of statistic which purport to demonstrate that a clear majority of immigrants come from outside the EU is expected lull us into the idea that net arrivals can be reduced by simply asserting more rigorous control of the UK visa system”.

Thirty years ago on April 11 we saw the riots, or uprisings, in Brixton. Thankfully those now seem to be distant days and the chances of another summer marked by racialised violence appear to be remote (though not many predicted the riots of 1985, 2001 or 2005).

What the riots made clear was that ignoring discrimination and social exclusion is not a recipe for building harmonious communities. We pride ourselves on the progress made since 1981, in terms of legislation and political representation, but is that progress as great as we would like?

After all, much has changed in the past 30 years, right?

• In 1981, black youth unemployment was estimated at a shocking 55 per cent. Last year we saw unemployment among black 16-24 year olds reach 48 per cent.
• In 1981, there was an 18 point gap in achievement of 5 or more higher level CSEs or O-levels between white students and black Caribbean (West Indian) students. Last year there was an 18 point gap between the achievement of black Caribbean boys and white boys.
• In the mid 1980s, black Caribbean men made up 8 per cent of the prison population. Last year that figure had nearly doubled to 15 per cent of the prison population.