SO, Amber Rudd has resigned as Home Secretary. She misled Parliament at the Home Affairs Select Committee. The evidence in a letter to the Prime Minister of what she authored and what she knew has directly contradicted what she said she knew. But let’s be clear, she has not resigned because she was the successor architect to Theresa May’s policy of creating a hostile environment when she was Home Secretary. Oh no.

Despite Windrush and the countless stories pouring forth on a daily basis of families torn apart, of visas refused, of deportations and detentions in error and the rising and quite understandable sense of panic amongst non-UK EU nationals as to what on earth awaits them after Brexit, the hostile environment policy remains in place.

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In my own postbag is a letter sent to Theresa May, on April 18, from Colin Greatorex, a copy of which was sent to me. It is heart-breaking. “Why”, it begins, “have you created a hostile environment for my wife and our family?”

Another family torn apart by the increasingly impossible burden of visa applications for those from the Global South. The costs are prohibitive. The refusals are routine and on spurious, paradoxical, cut-and-paste justifications. “Our children need their Mum and our Grandchildren need their Grandma. It is mental torture,” says my correspondent.

I can attest to that personally too. The hours we spend trying to work out if there is any hope of getting colleagues, friends and family to the same place to meet with one another in the UK, only to give up. A recent UK Government-funded work trip had to be relocated from London to Nairobi as the Home Office couldn’t be trusted with processing all the visas from partners all over the world

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The policy of creating a hostile environment has been remarkably successful. If your immigration status is not that of a UK-based EU national, if you are black, if you don’t speak English with an accent which suggests you were born here, if you are not called Smith or Jones or Macdonald, then you can expect, at the very least, to be questioned at borders, and to be questioned in public life.

You will be asked for proof of status at a whole range of new everyday borders – for rental, opening bank accounts, increasing numbers of bookings for travel, for university education and study, for health registration. You will be questioned, your personhood will be subjected to immediate doubt.

We are all border guards now, and a recent report by the Border Inspector shows that the consequences are dire, and that the Government isn’t even attempting to monitor its effects.

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It’s exhausting to live and work in such environments. And it is dangerous. The historical record shows where this kind of hyper-vigilance and registration can lead.

Such street-level bureaucracy leads to errors and then targets and then deliberate pursuing of policies, which destroy lives, break families up, deport people without regard to due process. This is not a fear, it’s actually happening, daily, in the UK. There are targets set to make it a reality, and punishments on those who do not “comply” – such as in my own institution where the consequences of not reporting on the whereabouts of Tier 4 students on a regular basis are severe punishments by the institution – by the Government, through financial sanctions.

What is needed are policies, actions, targets which will foster a hospitable environment. And in place of compliance for compliance’s sake we need critical education, engagement and creativity.

Welcome matters. But integration is about a lot more than welcome. It’s about the work of building neighbourliness with people who are different and people who are very similar too.

It’s a task for everyone – New Scots and Old Scots alike, with all Scots. It needs all the expertise we can bring to bear, as the making of any peaceful, flourishing society does. It comes about because leaders have policies, like New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy which puts inclusion and intercultural education at its heart, for everyone.

The UK Government could really learn a thing or two from the work, which has been done in Scotland over more than a decade, grounded in the excellent practice of countless grassroots groups and organisations and the research of Dr Alison Strang. For Scotland, integration begins on day one. For Scotland, the official policies promote inclusion and welcome and show Scotland’s leaders in the business of creating a hospitable environment.

When the policy in Westminster changes to one of setting targets for the creation of a hospitable environment we might find our faith in the Home Office restored, as “one of the great offices of state”, to cite Amber Rudd’s resignation letter. I for one would be happy to work towards a culture which actively works to let families like Colin’s live together, and not be torn apart.

Alison Phipps is UNESCO Chair for refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts, University of Glasgow.