decisions.

The one exception is policy regarding foreign students' access to work permits, as Blair has long believed that the UK needs to attract more international students and has gone out of his way to increase the numbers of such students. The net inflow of students rose from 70,600 in 1997 to 117,200 in 2004, suggesting significant success (although the increasing numbers predated Blair).

Blair's Concerns

In addition to his championing of students, Blair has displayed a strong interest in various aspects of immigration, including asylum, security, and integration. He has also not been averse to shuffling personnel and promoting large-scale institutional change.

For years, Blair supported the idea of splitting up the Home Office and creating a separate Ministry of Justice to ensure a better focus on the policy issues, buthe first had to wait for a set of crises at the Home Office and a Home secretary (John Reid) who shared his view. (Others felt it would lead to a disjointed approach and undermine the separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary).

He has also overseen many prosaic institutional changes — from the restructuring of the legal system for asylum to the creation of the aforementioned Border and Immigration Agency. But examining his interests over a decade in power, three areas stand out.

Asylum

Blair has shown particular interest in the asylum issue, particularly from around the start of his second term, when he made it a crucial aspect of his domestic political agenda. For example, in a memo he wrote in the summer of 2002, he listed