We've heard the immigration myths, now let's hear the truth

After all, there have been no fewer than five major pieces of legislation on asylum and immigration since 1993, and three since Labour came to power in 1997. These have incorporated many necessary and some, in my view, ill-judged measures (remember vouchers?), so parliament alone has devoted thousands of hours of debate to this area.

The Daily Express appears to have given itself over almost entirely to the subject, which may be contributing to the fact that polls regularly show a massive overestimate among Britons of the size of our minority ethnic population, which is just 8%.

All the evidence demonstrates that diverse communities are economically vibrant ones. Many of our public services, especially in the South-east and the cities, are heavily reliant on workers from abroad and refugees, who have come to the UK fleeing persecution rather than seeking work.

Even so they bring with them important skills, as the NHS Refugee Doctor programme demonstrates.We can maintain, and strengthen, our welfare state with a diverse population, not least because of the contribution made by migrant and refugee communities as workers and taxpayers.

There is fraud and abuse of our benefits system, by no means confined to people from abroad, and that needs to be vigorously rooted out, but we have to challenge the assumption that anyone coming to Britain is primarily motivated by our benefits system.

Tenants’ representatives have asserted to me that asylum seekers not only jump the housing queue but are given free driving lessons and cars

Density need not mean a poor quality of life – much depends on income, access to services, having a healthy mix of population and so forth. Yet at neighbourhood level, we need not fear accepting the fact that diversity presents challenges as well as opportunities.

This is at least in part because diversity, as we see it in our cities, tends to be closely correlated with high levels of population mobility or turnover.

National and local policies can determine whether we get the best out of a given set of circumstances, or the worst. The early years of the National Asylum Support Service, for example, did not inspire confidence. In many cases, small numbers of people from Somalia or Iraq were introduced to communities with little tradition of minority ethnic members and too little preparation to smooth the way.

Likewise, temporary accommodation policies that keep families constantly on the move and unable to put down roots in local schools and communities damage everyone.

Local authorities and housing providers can do a great deal to explain the changes taking place and to defuse myths before they take hold. One or two tenants' representatives locally have asserted to me in all seriousness that asylum seekers not only jump the housing queue but are given free driving lessons and cars. The responsibility for taking on and challenging such mythology cannot be left to government ministers. The government must, in turn, ensure that funding streams such as regeneration grants are sufficiently broad, substantial and sustained to support communities in flux, and not so targeted as to effectively set two deprived communities at odds with each other, with the distinction being racially defined as well as socially.