labour party

Since July 2006 Shadow Immigration Minister, Damian Green, has been consulting Britain's minority communities about the practical problems caused by the current immigration system. He has made a point of taking views from groups outside London representing a variety of ethnic and religious communities.

The Conservative Party does not accept all the recommendations that have been put to it, but the following ideas come from discussions with the communities most involved in daily contact with the immigration system.

The Tories want to reduce immigration by introducing a quota system for those wishing to enter the country.

There are two key aspects to David Cameron's proposals: the first concerns rules for European Union migrants, the second for those from countries from outside the EU.

Non-EU migrants are made up of asylum seekers, students, family members and economic migrants.

The Tories are focusing on economic migrants for now and say policy announcements on asylum commitments would come much nearer to an election and be dictated by world events.