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The Local Government Association (LGA) report on the vexed question of immigration numbers has provided much needed ammunition for those councils who have spent many months bemoaning the fact that current Government estimates are wholly inadequate as a guide upon which to base grant allocations. Despite the fact its focus is principally statistical, the study also raises a whole range of issues requiring Government attention if integration of migrants – the report's catch-all term covering economic migrants and refugees – is to be achieved and, as a result, harmonious community cohesion maintained. It points out problems faced by schools because of the mobility of migrant children and cultural differences which are not fully understood; it acknowledges that refugees, and asylum seekers in particular, may be suffering mental illness caused by the traumatic circumstances which propelled them to seek shelter in the UK; and it addresses the inadequacy of translation services and the deficit of English tuition – a situation being made worse by Government policies. The report states: ‘Most migrants' service requirements will be best met through developing mainstream services rather than creating separate specialist services.' And it is here that it misses a trick. Voluntary organisations are mentioned fleetingly in the LGA report as being able to offer assistance to councils, but Refugee Community Organisations (or RCOs) are specifically overlooked. There exists a well-developed network of RCOs which for many years have been supporting and advising their respective communities. Some are now assisting economic migrants with whom they share a range of issues, and these migrants themselves are beginning to establish their own self-help groups. So what has the report missed out? Simply that migrant/refugee community groups should be consulted as a matter of course to assist councils in achieving their Local Area Agreement (LAA) targets. In Hammersmith & Fulham LBC the local refugee forum ran an exercise where work already being undertaken by the various RCOs was matched against the council's LAA targets. Meetings were held with council officers and it was pointed out that several local refugee groups were actively involved in positive intervention to prevent homelessness. Similarly, RCO-run supplementary schools, held after state school hours by a number of groups to help refugee youngsters with English, maths and science, fed into a target to increase attainment at primary school. The list of matches went on and on. Antony Lillis, Hammersmith & Fulham's cabinet member for children's services, says: ‘The local refugee forum enables us to keep in touch with the frontline organisations who work with refugees and asylum seekers. I am pleased the forum has taken an active role in discussing where its work dovetails with the aims set out in the LAA.' Meanwhile in Brent LBC, a joint report by the local refugee forum and the Primary Care Trust on combating the high incidence of tuberculosis in the borough was in no doubt as to the importance of such a dialogue. Councils, the Home Office and the Department of Health working together ‘…would help to avoid the exclusion of refugees from the targets for local delivery plans and Local Area Agreements,' it said. And in his recent consultation on a London-wide strategy for refugee integration, Mayor Ken Livingstone expressed concern that in the troublesome area of housing allocation – now to be the subject of further LGA study – the voices of local refugee communities was heard ‘only occasionally, if at all, in consultative structures or in local strategic partnerships.' He suggested that RCOs should be brought into strategic processes, ‘like Local Area Agreements.' Refugee and migrant groups are a resource waiting to be used, offering culturally sensitive knowledge and language expertise covering a vast range of issues. Sadly, not only is their existence seldom referred to, but there are current policy developments which could sweep them away altogether. This summer's report from the Commission for Integration and Cohesion called on the public sector to stop funding so-called ‘single groups' – meaning those dealing primarily with one specific ethnicity – in the mistaken belief that their existence hindered integration. Communities secretary, Hazel Blears, has yet to respond to this specific funding issue. Hopefully, when she does get round to the detail she will appreciate these refugee and migrant groups, properly funded and supported, can assist councils to deliver services based, hopefully, on more accurate statistics. Mulat Haregot is chair of Hammersmith and Fulham Refugee Forum

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WHITEHALL

A clear dialogue helps inclusion

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