My Lords, I am always impressed by the matter of fact approach demonstrated towards these matters by the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, and I think it is significant that, when the Government are repeatedly telling us that our future depends on the private sector, we are hearing significant voices within the private sector questioning the whole basis of the cap in immigration policy. Either we want to be able to let things grow, or we do not. Some of the people on whom this is dependent are saying, "Be very careful with what you're doing in immigration policy".

My noble friend Lord Hunt referred to the very interesting debate that we had last week, and it be wrong to repeat it all, but one thing that came out of that debate was the realisation that the pressures of migration are not going to reduce. We must be very careful that we do not slip into a kind of "finger in the dyke" syndrome while the dyke is crumbling. In a world in which we emphasise the importance of market, free movement of capital and goods and having international economic policies that facilitate that and strengthen those processes, there is a gigantic flaw in the market if there is not free movement of people. That will, of course, lead particularly to illegal migration-or so-called illegal migration. We have to be very careful about double standards in that regard. I apologise for referring to a point that I made last week, but we regard someone as a social hero in this country who goes off to find a job elsewhere if his community is faced with economic depression, but when in the international market someone does that, they are regarded as somehow a threat. We use disparaging language about them and call them "economic migrants". It has become almost a term of disparagement. In fact, they may be heroes, if the international market was looked at in a different way.

That is not all. Climate change may make these pressures that we are looking at seem insignificant by comparison in not very many years' time, because people will be forced to move in very large numbers. Are we preparing for that? Something that we should all take very seriously is that we cannot solve the issues of migration in the context of national policy alone. It is one area in which effective international policies are absolutely crucial. That starts with the European Union, but extends beyond it into the UN system and the wider international community.

I have one other thing to say about context-and I am glad that my noble friend Lord Hunt referred to it. We must realise that so often the most immediate pressures of migration fall on the communities least prepared for it, which are already struggling in terms of jobs, health and education provision, housing and the rest. If we want success in migration policy, we must look to that social and economic investment where the front line of the issue is really to be found.

I am afraid that there is a certain confusion coming from the Government and from different people within the Government. On the one hand, we are hearing that this will all add up to a way of controlling immigration numbers and, on the other hand, we are hearing that it is all about positive integration and making a success of integration. These two arguments are clearly not synonymous and it would be helpful if the Minister could give an authoritative view on how she sees it and what she believes it is all about in that context.

Like other noble Lords, I am sure, I have received very interesting briefing. Some of it comes from an illuminating document from the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and the Immigration Law Practitioners' Association. In many ways, the people working in the heat of the situation should have their views reflected in Hansard as they themselves have put them. I shall pick a couple of points from that brief because the people doing this work deserve honest and straightforward answers in the context of the kind of immigration debate that we are having today. The briefing points out that Adrian Blackledge, professor of bilingualism at Birmingham, has noted that,

"there is little evidence that testing English language learners is in itself an effective way to develop linguistic skills. The National Association for Teaching English and other Community Languages to Adults ... argue that the UK is the best place for people to learn the English language".

It goes on to say that, even if it were accepted that the scheme,

"could theoretically have some merit from the point of view of developing linguistic skills, there appear to be a number of more practical problems with it".

Professor Alderson, professor of applied linguistics at Lancaster University-I declare an interest as a member of the court of that university-observes that,

"the UK Border Agency's August 2010 list of approved providers of the English test has been developed by unknown agencies with 'absolutely no evidence of their validity, reliability etc'".

The briefing comes to a conclusion with some specific questions, and I am sure that the House will forgive me if I draw them to your Lordships' attention:

"If these Rules are not to be withdrawn we would welcome clarification of the following: ... The circumstances in which the 'exceptional/compassionate circumstances' exemption will be met. In particular, will the following automatically be treated as meeting the exception? ... cases in which English language classes are not reasonably accessible e.g. because of geographical location, cost, internal conflict ... cases in which level A1 testing is not available in a particular country or more generally reasonably accessible ... cases in which an impecunious applicant seeks to join their spouse".

These are important questions and I hope that the Minister will deal with them, but there are others. I have drawn attention to the document and I am sure that if she has not already read it, she will now ask her officials to ensure that she is able to.

I have spent most of my life working with voluntary agencies, non-governmental agencies and the rest in the sphere of international relations, human relations, the movement of people, development and so on. One of the things that I am always concerned about is our inability to keep vividly in mind the reality of life for refugees, would-be asylum seekers and the rest-the mental anguish, the turmoil, the anxiety through which they are going. How are we, by the policies and measures that we are introducing, meeting the main basic humanitarian and humane responsibility of ensuring that these people are treated with dignity and respect as these pressures bear in upon them, and that we are not inadvertently actually making their hellish life even more of a nightmare?

That is why we have to look at these systems, not just to see that they look neat on paper but to find out how they appear to the people in the middle of the situation who are experiencing the reality and how far they reinforce prejudice in our own society as people say, "Look, all these rules are necessary-there must be something wrong with the people", instead of saying that these people are victims of the imperfections of the international system. How on earth can we best help them in their predicament while recognising that it is simply impossible at this stage to have an open-door policy? We must face up to this. It is a cultural point. It is so easy to criticise the official in the migration system who does something insensitive or wrong, but how much is the leadership working to provide the ethos and the culture in which good performance is expected of all those working in such services?

We need to be careful about just thinking that new rules can create new solutions. There are some huge cultural and educational issues involved in the whole story of migration.