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Sussex research has contributed to a shift in public policy away from seeing climate-induced migration as an imminent security, health and public order risk (c.f. the Stern Review) towards an understanding that migration can be an important adaptive response to climate vulnerability. Specifically, reference to migration as a potential adaptation to climate change in Paragraph 14f of the Cancun Agreement of UNFCCC in 2010 reflects the nuanced approach stressed in Sussex research; through their work with GO-Science and DFID, and international organisations including the Global Forum on Migration and Development, UNHCR, IOM and the European Commission, Sussex researchers have contributed to the development and implementation of this paragraph, and to a re-framing of international debates.
Research at Oxford's International Migration Institute (IMI) on the driving forces of global migration processes, conducted in conversation with international stakeholder groups, has significantly affected the ways in which migration is conceptualised and viewed by experts, international organisations and governments involved in formulating migration and development policies. The new perspective arising from IMI's research fundamentally challenges the common assumption that migration is driven by poverty and distress, and holds that migration is in fact an integral part of the process of human and economic development. This view was adopted by the United Nations in the UNDP Human Development Report 2009 and has significantly influenced the UK government's Foresight report on Migration and Global Environmental Change.
Research undertaken by Dr Barr and colleagues at Exeter has examined pro-environmental behaviour policy and notions of behavioural change for environmental sustainability. This body of research has resulted in three main types of impact: it has informed public policy making, it has promoted product development, and it has informed public debate on the issue of sustainability. These impacts have been achieved through: reports for DEFRA that relate to UK behaviour change policy, collaboration with social marketing businesses that has resulted in mobile application development for UK and EU travellers, and informed public debate around issues of consumer behavioural change and flying. The latter has been achieved through citation by journalists and the instigation of debate in national (UK) and international media outlets.
Work undertaken at the University of Manchester (UoM) has provoked debate, and challenged established lines of thought, by `myth busting' current claims about racial diversity and segregation — such as `Britain is becoming a country of ghettos' — which have hitherto dominated public and policy debate. A sociologically-informed demographic approach, developed at UoM, has been adopted by local authorities for monitoring neighbourhood population change and ethnic diversity. Additionally, research findings have been used by non-governmental organisations (NGOs), national policy-makers and local government to promote alternative, sociologically-informed understandings of race, segregation and diversity, challenging the current policy focus. Taken together, these twin interventions have resulted in increasingly critical and robust examinations of race, segregation and diversity, both nationally and locally.
The impact has its origins in work carried out by social policy (Kofman) and legal (Wray, Howard) academics from the mid-2000s which challenged existing conceptualisations of family migration, the absence of gender considerations and the evidential basis for national and European policy in this field.
This research has culminated since 2011 in an influential intervention in debates on restrictions on spousal migration, especially relating to income requirements, in Parliament, amongst NGOs and the public, and on the form and outcome of legal proceedings which challenged the compatibility of immigration rules restricting spousal migration with human rights and non-discrimination norms. The impact therefore takes the form of significant contribution to legal challenges and policy debate that are creating impetus for reform.
In the UK and the rest of Europe, public bodies and policymakers have struggled to quantify migration and make accurate population forecasts because of inconsistent data from a variety of disparate sources. The University of Southampton has demonstrated how, via the use of statistical modelling, conceptual frameworks and migration modelling, policymakers can radically improve the information they glean from the data sources at their disposal. The team successfully guided the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in overhauling their methodologies, finally making them compliant with European Union (EU) regulations. The wider impact of accurate numbers is significant for public service provision, planning, and the UK economy. Furthermore, ONS data feeds into numerous areas of public policy, hence the provision of accurate estimates by Southampton researchers has significant reach and impact on such policies.
Immigration has affected modern Britain substantially, and the impacts have been felt in areas such as jobs, housing, education, language and social cohesion. As a result of this research the government now has a model for accounting for the effects of social cohesion in formulating policy. Saggar et al were tasked by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to develop original research on social cohesion and integration impacts in close proximity to policy-makers. Using this research, they were asked to supply direct policy advice to the Home Office; as a result, ministerial advice changed from a claim that the measured social impacts were broadly negative to agreement that, for cost-benefit analysis purposes, these were zero.
Interdisciplinary research undertaken by Shaw, Barr and Coles at Exeter has examined the use of social marketing to influence pro-environmental behaviour policy and behaviour change for environmental sustainability. This body of research has resulted in three main types of impact: it has influenced public policy making, it has promoted product development for SMEs and it has informed public debate on the issue of sustainability. These impacts have been achieved through: reports for Defra that relate to UK behaviour change policy; collaboration with social marketing businesses that has resulted in mobile application development for UK and European travellers; and informed public debate around issues of behavioural change and flying. The latter has been achieved through coverage by journalists and the instigation of debate in national (UK) and international media outlets.
Community cohesion emerged as a distinct policy agenda in the aftermath of the 2001 disturbances in Bradford, Burnley and Oldham and was subsequently shaped by events including the London bombings of 2005 and large-scale migration from the EU and beyond. Researchers in the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) have delivered a programme of research and evaluation exploring cohesion and the effectiveness of service responses. Beneficiaries have included government departments, devolved administrations and other local, regional and national public agencies. Awareness and understanding have been sensitised, lessons learnt have informed strategy, and guidance has directed improvements in practice.
Over 5.5 million people in England and Wales live with flood risk. Research conducted at the University of Surrey illustrates for the first time how exposure to, and experience of, this risk is unequally distributed in the population, often varying along existing lines of social inequality and vulnerability.
The findings of this research have had significant impacts on national strategy and policy.
Surrey's research has been used to change the Environment Agency's flood warning codes and messages throughout the UK, as well as to inform the next Flood Incident Management Investment Strategy. Furthermore, the research has been drawn on by Collingwood Environmental Planning in developing an evidence base for the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment for Defra.