Miliband: UK should 'work at' integration
The UK should "work at" becoming more integrated, Labour leader Ed Miliband has said, as he talked about a "comprehensive strategy" to cope with the issues and problems within a multi-ethnic society.
Mr Miliband admitted Labour had failed to keep immigration under control and had not dealt with racial and ethnic divisions in British cities when it was last in power.
He promised not to ignore "deep anxieties" about the impact of immigration and indicated that he was willing to "look at" the impact of a Government cap on immigration from outside the EU - something he has been very critical of in the past.
In the speech in Tooting, south London, Mr Miliband was applauded when he said that in contrast to what people like the blackshirt Oswald Mosley, Enoch Powell and BNP leader Nick Griffin have said on the issue, the multi-ethnic Britain shown in the latest census and in the summer's Olympic and Paralympic Games was a reason to celebrate.
The Labour leader said that the games had an important lesson for the country on integration:
He said that watching Somalia-born Briton Mo Farah win his medals at the Olympic Games was one of his highlights of 2012.
Using his own parents' experience as Jewish refugees from the Holocaust, Mr Miliband also said:
But Mr Miliband admitted that there is worry over the "pace of change" in Britain because of immigration, especially in areas which have seen large volumes of new arrivals:
Mr Miliband even said that past Labour governments were "overly optimistic" in thinking that people from different racial backgrounds "would learn to get on together... automatically".
Labour leader Ed Miliband's "integration strategy" includes policies on language, housing and the workplace:
English language education for immigrants will be given priority over expenditure on the translation of non-essential information into their mother tongues.
Parents of children born abroad would need to take responsibility for learning English.
There would be an increase in the quantity of public sector jobs which require proficiency in English.
There would be a crackdown on landlords who cram newcomers to the UK into overcrowded homes.
There would be an end the use of tied housing and forced indebtedness which lock migrant workers into poor housing conditions.
He vowed to ban recruitment agencies from advertising only for workers from particular countries.
He said he would be tougher in enforcing laws designed to get rid of shift patterns which leave people working only with others from the same ethnic background.
Prime Minister David Cameron said Labour had left the immigration system in "meltdown" that had let two Birmingham-sized cities worth of immigrants into Britain over the last 10 years.
Speaking at a press conference in Brussels Mr Cameron admitted that he hadn't seen the exact details of Ed Miliband's speech on integration.
Mr Cameron defended the Government's decision to include students within its target to cut net migration to the tens of thousands - a move that Mr Miliband described as "odd".
Asked about the impact on students arriving in the UK from India and other countries Mr Miliband said:
Mr Miliband also said Business Secretary Vince Cable and other people in Government wanted the change too.
Mr Cameron, asked about the topic in Brussels, told reporters:
UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage said Mr Miliband's comments were "a bit rich and a bit late".