Moving Up and Getting On set out to review integration and social cohesion policy in the UK and examine areas for action. Looking back at what has been achieved, it can be seen that successive governments have struggled with both areas. Recent Labour governments generated a large number of strategy documents on integration and social cohesion, but did not follow them through with effective or coordinated action. The Coalition government has been characterised by the absence of explicit policy.

A lack of conceptual clarity about the nature of integration and social cohesion has been a feature of the period since 1990 and has also hindered policy. With this in mind, I argue that an essential prerequisite for successful integration and social cohesion policy is a clear conceptual understanding about these conditions and the role of the state in promoting them. There needs to be a clearer vision of what integration and social cohesion look and feel like, and this needs to be articulated from the very top of government, but also to permeate down to a local level.

The book argues for integration to be seen as the capability of migrants to achieve social inclusion and well-being. Such capabilities are achieved by the possession of a set of facilitators such as English-language fluency and the type of work that supports social mixing and secure housing tenure.

Social cohesion has seen shifts in the way that governments understand this condition. This book argues that social cohesion is the ability of people and places to manage conflict and change.

Current debates about integration and social cohesion place emphasis on the responsibility of migrants to integrate into British society. Of course, migrants have social obligations, and these include learning English, if needed. But the government, too, has duties to migrants and to wider society. The above definitions clarify them and outline the role of the state in ensuring integration and social cohesion. The government needs to ensure that structures are in place to ensure the social inclusion and well-being of migrants, for example, through improved English-language provision and measures to deal with exploitative landlords. Government also has to provide leadership and the supportive structures that facilitate social cohesion.