Migrant worker says refugees bring richness to society

Victor Iringere said migrants bring economic and cultural benefits to the UK

People who migrate to the UK bring a lot of richness to society, a man who works with refugees in Coventry believes.

Victor Iringere, who is originally from Nigeria, works on social enterprise projects with migrants and refugees and said their value to society should not be overlooked.

The latest Home Office figures show net migration added 606,000 people to the UK's population in 2022.

That is the highest number on record.

Mr Iringere, of Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre, said: "There's a lot of important contributions and a lot of richness that migrants have brought and not just culturally, but economically as well."

Coventry's last census revealed more than one in four people there were born outside the UK.

Sarah Longlands, chief executive of the Centre for Local Economic Strategy, has investigated public attitudes towards immigration in the city.

"I think migration is part of society and I think we need to have a much more grown up conversation about what migration is and how it changes our country and our community," she said.

Richard Clews said his company relied on immigrant workers

Richard Clews, managing director of Clews Recycling in Rugby, also values the contribution of immigrants.

He said: "We always try to employ British staff, always, but they don't want to do our sort of work.

"We will still need to have migrant workers to be able to run basic recycling facilities."

In its manifesto at the last general election, the Conservative Party said: "There will be fewer lower-skilled migrants and overall numbers will come down."

However, the net migration figures released earlier show that since 2020 there has been a steep rise in the number of immigrants from outside the EU coming to the UK.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, told ITV's This Morning programme: "Numbers are too high, it's as simple as that, and I want to bring them down."

Neither he, nor the Labour Party, have set a target for immigration numbers.