A new champion of immigration has emerged in the unlikely form of Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury. He recently spoke out against people who feel threatened by migration.

Following the new coalition government’s decision to put a cap on yearly levels of immigration to the UK, the Archbishop announced that migrants should be seen as a gift that help our “society both to learn and to teach”. His comments were taken as a dig at his predecessor, Lord Carey of Clifton, who believed that immigration threatens “the very ethos or DNA of our nation”.

Lord Carey’s opinion, while not displaying much Christian brotherly love, also shows a lack of perspicacity. Immigrants bring with them new skills, experience and ideas. If a business were to never bring in new staff, it would stagnate. The same thing would surely happen even on the scale of a country.

Diversity encourages creativity: you take the best bits, mix it all up and come up with something even better. Like a cocktail.

Will the Archbishop’s views make a difference to the government’s immigration policies? Probably not. But maybe he’ll make more people realize that change is good.

Do you think that the government will U-turn on its immigration policies? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.