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be available to those without a strong local connection (though they would continue to be eligible for benefit outside these areas). This measure would also require new primary legislation,
and it would have
would have implications for the administration of the
social security system.
Conclusions
9.
The effect of these further measures taken together would
be to ensure that if refugees dependent on state subsidies chose
to concentrate in particular areas, those areas would not be
those where the pressure on public services was at its greatest.
10. It could be argued that these policies, though tough, would
not be unfair in that they do not discriminate between refugees
and native Britons, and they would still allow people a large
measure of choice over their own destinies. They stop well short
of measures to control the internal movement of population, and
they contain no element of bureaucratic direction of individuals.
11.
As
Nevertheless, I cannot recommend them to colleagues.
well as being difficult administratively, they would be immensely
controversial and would be bound to be misrepresented as unfair
discrimination against immigrant ethnic minorities. I think
there would be considerable difficulties in getting our
supporters in Parliament to accept them. I am therefore merely
displaying these options to colleagues without attempting to work
out in detail how they might be implemented.
12. If colleagues nevertheless feel that these options must be
examined further, the work of exploring their implications would
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