Headmaster's Assembly : Monday 24th November 2025
My father was an immigrant. As were his parents, my grandparents. They moved to the UK from Spain in the early 1960s to find work in the National Health Service, living and working in North London for over a decade.
Life in Spain at that time was exceptionally tough – the Spanish side of my family are from Galicia, a region in the very north west of Spain, and living standards were much lower than those in places like the UK at that time.
Life under the ultra-conservative authoritarian regime of General Franco was also difficult – there was little freedom of speech, women’s rights were heavily restricted and regions like Galicia were neglected economically.
Eventually, Franco’s regime collapsed following his death, 50 years ago last week. My grandparents returned home and my father moved to Britain to seek work – he met my mother, they married in 1976, and he never went back, settling here in England for the next 45 years before returning home to Spain when he was 68.
I would not be here were it not for the UK’s historically open tolerance and acceptance of migrants. I would not have an unusual surname, and I would not have had the privilege of growing up in a household and a family were I was exposed to different cultures, languages, traditions and values.
I don’t feel Spanish and I am not by nationality – I am very British. I was born here, I went to school here, I even served and fought for the Queen in the British Army. And yet, there have been times when I have not felt entirely like I belong. For a nation built entirely around immigration over millennia, we have a strange obsession with trying to identify what makes one truly ‘British’. Think Harry Potter and mudbloods.
In recent years, the language used around migration in the general press and society has become more extreme and divisive. Migrants are increasingly touted as “scroungers” and “criminals”, here to sponge off the state and claim a free house, benefits and healthcare.
If a migrant is not delivering a net contribution to the economy, then they are not welcome here. What about the many British people not ‘delivering a net contribution to their country’? How do we deal with them? Migrants are portrayed as somehow different.
Their reputation has not been helped by some recent high-profile crimes perpetrated by migrants here in the UK waiting for a decision regarding their asylum status. Whilst I would never excuse their actions, these are still the exceptions.
We are even now at the point where for those crimes that make national news, we are told within minutes whether the suspect arrested is a British or foreign national. We are in strange and difficult times.
Over the last two weeks, there has been a significant amount of coverage in the news of immigration policies and the current Government’s plans to tighten up on immigration rules so that they become some of the toughest in Europe.
The UK is undoubtedly under pressure and it is an economic fact that the collapse of public services and significant strain on society will follow if migration is simply left uncontrolled.
But we live in a world where policies on immigration have to change and adapt with the times. The UN’s 1951 Refugee Convention, supplemented by its 1967 Protocol, help protect refugees seeking safety.
The core principle of the 1951 Convention is non-refoulement, a principle which asserts that a refugee should not be returned to a country where they face serious threats to their life or freedom.
But that was drawn up in a world when the population was around 2.5 billion people. We now live in a world of 8.2 billion where peoples’ ability to move across the globe is much greater.
There are new threats too, such as growing climate instability in those areas where population is increasing at its fastest rate, such as Sub Saharan Africa.
And here lies the conundrum. How do we deal with migration fairly and humanely, whilst also acknowledging that migration must in some way be controlled?
It is exceptionally easy to create division in society. I’m going to try and illustrate that now – if both your parents were not born here in the UK, could I ask you to please stand up.
Take a moment to all look around.
How did you feel being made to stand up and be separate from the crowd?
Those who campaign most energetically against migration often seek to exploit peoples’ differences and create fear of what we might call the ‘other’.
I don’t have any answers for you here this morning. But I do want to leave you with these things to reflect on and carry forward.
First, be absolutely aware that there are forces in society that want to create division in order to further their political ambitions, beliefs and ideology. You must think critically and not fall for cheap, populist sound bites. The migration debate is incredibly complex.
Second, be conscious that when it comes to the issue of immigration, and migration in general, there is not a clear or easy answer. Anyone suggesting there is, please be extremely wary of. Shutting our borders and making it harder for migrants to enter the UK is one potential solution but what do we lose by doing this. There are over 250,000 foreign nationals working in the NHS, 20% of the total, many of them looking after our most vulnerable citizens.
Third – always remember that when we are debating the issue of migration that it concerns human beings…other people who have families, children, lives to live. They have human rights too.
And remember: There but for the grace of God go I
An expression of humility and empathy that means “I could have been in that unfortunate situation if not for luck or divine intervention”. It acknowledges that our own good fortune is not solely due to our own merit and that we should be grateful for our circumstances.
It might easily have been us born in a different country seeking to escape to lead a better life – can we blame others for wanting to seek that for themselves or their families?
