The fallout from President Trump’s toxic immigration decree has underlined the importance of the values that lie behind any immigration system. Several ministers have rightly condemned the decree as being inconsistent with British values. But with Brexit negotiations just weeks away there is a pressing need for our ministers to start articulating a clear set of interests and values that will underpin our own post-Brexit immigration policy.

The referendum outcome was not just about immigration; but for most voters, nothing demonstrated the perceived loss of sovereignty more than the fact that a UK government no longer had full control of its immigration policy. For years the Conservatives fought elections pledging to be tough on immigration without letting on that EU free movement rules meant we had little chance of controlling actual levels. The EU referendum was the first time that voters truly understood the emptiness of our position.

The problem is, there is nothing on the horizon to suggest that achieving any significant reduction in immigration is achievable or even desirable.

With much of the country enjoying effectively full employment, the appetite of business for new, motivated workers at all skill levels shows no signs of being sated.

Ministers have been quick to give assurances that Brexit will not mean that the tap is turned off. The environment secretary, Andrea Leadsom, has indicated that farmers will still be able to hire unskilled seasonal EU labour; the communities secretary, Sajid Javid, has similarly suggested that the 250,000 EU construction workers on British building sites will still be welcome; the prime minister has emphasised the importance of the UK continuing to attract highly skilled workers. In fact, no minister has yet been able to point to any group of foreign workers currently here who should not, or would not, be here in post-Brexit Britain.

Furthermore, whatever free trade deals we embark upon, the governments of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and India have already indicated that they will be looking for easier access for their workers. And even before we get to these, we will need to strike a trade deal with the EU that surely will include concessions on new EU workers.

There could be another rude awakening for the public when they realise that Brexit will not mean a cut in immigration after all. The previous pledge to cut immigration to the tens of thousands is, in truth, increasingly irrelevant.

Rather than focus on an overall net figure, we should take a more sophisticated approach. One obvious change should be to remove students from the headline migration figure. A question that should be raised, however, is the extent to which the service industry will continue to rely on well-educated young adults from the EU who take relatively low-skilled jobs. Many of these – in catering, hospitality and retail – are ideal entry-level posts for Britons overcoming barriers to employment, such as those recovering from illness or ex-offenders. So there is a big opportunity for the government to outline an approach to future immigration policy that provides some certainty to business, and which protects our national interests. But it should also serve as a demonstration of our values: openness, tolerance and fairness.

A good place to start would be the status of the 3 million EU migrants living in the UK, whose lives will be affected by Brexit. The prime minister has rightly spoken of the need for a quick resolution on this matter, but we can and should go further in providing a firm guarantee of their status ahead of talks.

By recognising their value to our economy and society, and the sheer inhumanity and impracticality of ever thinking that these families and individuals could be required to leave the place they call home, we can take the issue off the table altogether. Now, that would be a powerful and positive statement of our Brexit values.