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Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

It strikes me that I should have declared an interest when I spoke on the earlier amendment, so let me do so now. I was chief executive of a student volunteering body, Students Partnership Worldwide, and saw volunteering right up close. It seems that there is a rather romanticised view in the Committee of what volunteering is. I wonder whether those who believe that it really is so altruistic, and conducted simply because of passion for a cause, would consider internship for young people as a form of volunteering. Would they accept perhaps that many people, particularly in times of recession, wish to build up their CV and do things that others would consider to be useful contributions to society, things that would give them skills or things that might enhance the employer’s perspective of the broadness of their background? Might they accept that those people do not have ill motives, because they are trying to extract some personal advantage from volunteering, but that they also perhaps have an interest in the cause? You can have multiple motives for what you do at different times of your life. It is not a matter just of needing to be persuaded by the passion of the cause. So incentives are not perverse. "Incentives where we can and compulsion almost never" would be my motto. I suggest to the Minister that he think extremely carefully before he responds affirmatively to the amendment, if that is what he intends.