Thursday 14 April 2011

Immigration - The Real Issues.


Today David Cameron gave a speech on the growing anxiety over immigration in the UK. He attacked the Labour Party for making the subject taboo and overly sensitive (which I believe is correct, it is hard to discuss immigration without being accused of racism, or in fact over-sympthisation).

It seems in the last 12 months immigration has become a hot-topic in the international realm, last year Angela Merkel announced that multiculturalism in Germany had failed. And only this week France banned Muslim women from wearing the Niqab and the Burqa in public places. Both were met with relative public support.

Today marks the turn of the UK to have its say multicultural Britain and the fears the British public seemingly have. Now I'm going to go out on a limb and say that a lot of this tension is not because of mass immigration, but because of "islamification" (which for many reasons is a ridiculous concept, however I'll play along).
Mass immigration in my opinion is not a tension point, don't get me wrong people are aggrieved by the idea. "Bloody foreigners coming over here and stealing our jobs" springs to mind. (Again, a ridiculous myth in most cases) and there is anecdotal evidence that "They bring all their family and sponge of our government", however this is a minority and there is a much greater number of British Nationals doing the exact same thing they criticise immigrants of doing. The irony is not lost.

The tension arises due to "islamification" and the rise of "militant, extreme muslims". The growing number of newspaper reports regarding home-grown terrorists panders to the Daily Mail reading, BNP supporters, who look for somebody to hate to express their inner brute on a sector of society. Like the French, there are some
in Britain who are intimidated by the unknown and those whose religious beliefs differ to theirs. In fact, just today a YouGov poll showed that 66% of Brits polled supported a ban of the Burqa.

How long until we see a Burqa ban in the UK?

Yet, the focus of today was not the wild, racist clammer of 'islamification' but the discussion of high immigration. There is a downside to immigration. The number of workers coming through is simply too high, Britain in many places is already over-populated, the need for immigrant workers needs to come down. The Coalition has announced policies to bring the number down, they are implementing a points system, which decides how beneficial the worker will be to the UK's economy (which is of course what the government looks at when considering its workforce), it also looking into cracking down on sham marriages and the handling of student visas. Immigrants who come to the UK should be highly skilled, adding something that British workers can not, we don't need immigrants to come and do the low level, unskilled jobs, we should be pushing British people to do them. The real problem is benefit culture, many are happy to not work and seek benefits instead of taking a job they do not want to do. Would I want to do an unskilled job? Probably not, would I? If I had to.

As long as we have a benefit system that allows workers to be better off sat on their sofas rather than working we will always have a problem with immigration. The government has announced its plans to curb this
culture, introducing the universal credit and slashing benefits for those who refuse a job. Which is a step in the right direction.

Without the solution the issues of immigration will continue to fester and grow. Cameron talked of those who do not learn English and refuse to intergrate, and he  is right to criticise these people. It seems confusing, even silly that somebody can enter the UK workforce without being able to speak English. It is not about
attempting to make immigrants British (because what is it to be British?) but for them to enter into our societies and learn the basic principals of the western world. Attempts to set up Sharia courts and to not abide by our laws (mistreatment of women) is a slap in the face to the government which has welcomed them
to the UK.

Of course, the UK has benefited enormously from immigration, which has allowed skilled workers into the country and brought new cultures with them. We should also be cracking down on illegal immigration and helping asylum seekers with a legitimate claim to safety.

Quick note on Vince Cable. Keep your criticisms private, stop throwing your toys out of the pram.

15 comments:

  1. look at the stats for gun crime figures in london and youl see why we dont want immigration!!

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  2. Oh dear. So you've looked through those stats and analysed them by geography, population and confounding factors I assume? Rather than jump straight to ridiculous conclusions.

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  3. tell me why when we have so many people un-employed that we need immigrants to come in and fill jobs?? are we saying that the education isnt goo enough in this country to give people the skills to take the jobs that these people are supposedly filling??

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  4. The jobs market is not static, people do not come and 'fill' jobs and then those jobs become available again when they leave. The amount of jobs available changes, many migrants increase the number of jobs available in an area because of the increased demand they bring.

    If we want to tackle the issues people think are caused by immigration we need to tackle unemployment, build more housing and bring in a living wage so that migrant work isn't abused to the detriment of British citizens who have to compete in a wage market that is having a race to the bottom.

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  5. how i see it is that in january there was almost 2.5 million people unemployed in the UK. Thats slightly gone down now cant find the latest figures but you havnt come up with a compelling argument to me why we need immigrants to come in to fill up jobs when we have 2.5 million people here ready to fill them. Yes i know a lot of them will have no skills but surely within 2.5 million people they can find people with the right skill sets to fill the job vacancies??

    And also ive worked with polish citizens in jobs which could be filled by anyone with no education at all (i.e any one of those 2.5 million unemployed already in UK), after all it was only a part time job while i was having the year out between high school and sixth form. The girl worked really hard as ive found out polish people are really good workers but the money they earn here they send the majority of it back home!! how can that be beneficial to us when we need the money to be re spent through the system so it earns us money through taxes etc!!

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  6. think most people are scared to say whats really happening in case they get called racist!!

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  7. Eventually when you start to beat someone in an argument if they have certain prejudices like this person obviously; as they will become cornered they lash out in a way which projects their actual characteristics,sad really, even if they have lived in an area highly proportioned by immigrants their understanding of immigration is flawed - Anonymous is an immigration troll!

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  9. Plus, I might as well state that 'slashing' the benefit system, especially for those who refuse a job not only will not work its a massive misunderstanding by the government that people will be forced into employment. There is a huge difference in culture between those considering the reformation of the benefit system and those on benefits and both refuse to recognise either party, thats where the problem lies. I think if people are healthy and fit to work then they should have a moral obligation to pay for their own existence as there is no other progression that can sustain a democratic system in contemporary society, but an exasperated culture has developed which is not of the same obligation and it is also questionable to whether most of these people who have been subjected to abstract poverty should participate through being threatened. It is always a conservative government that pushes the message of everyone is in this together when its clear in capitalist democracies this is far from the truth, this is a fundamental unreality which is sold to voters and they go along with it as it preaches fairness. The point here is not to believe that one person is more deserving than another because they do not work, it is far more complex than the simplicity of employed labour over the unemployed.

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  10. Dont feel cornered at all havnt had an argument that tells me why we should allow unskilled workers to take up jobs that could be done by anyone currently unemployed in the uk.

    Also havnt been told why we need immigrants when we have 2.5 million people unemployed already in uk!!

    Your obviously one of these politically correct guys who would love nothin more than to get into bed with nick clegg and allow the country thats already overcrowded be flooded with more immigrants. Im glad david cameron is at least doing something about it even if he cant do what he really wants to due to having hands tied behind back due to EU.

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  11. Please don't sterotype me because of my argument. I am not politically correct because I want to be seen as a 'goodie', but I do believe in the kinds of things that I imagine you would call politically correct because they are my own deeply held beliefs.

    As an aside, I think Nick Clegg is spineless, so don't try and box me in with him.

    As I have already said, the jobs market is not static, and the jobs available do not magically fit the unemployed like a jigsaw piece. You seem to be under the impression that if we deport 2.5 million people, then that means that the 2.5 million people unemployed would all be able to find work. That is mind-bogglingly wrong.

    Increased immigration brings new skills to our country, new expertise, and more demand for goods, thus creating more jobs. That is not to say we should completely abandon any control of immigration, clearly it should be monitored, but to cast it off as inherently bad without analysing its benefits is extraordinary.

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  12. I dont mind immigrants that come win with skills that not be able to be met by people currently in unemployment due to high level of skills required, for example a doctor.

    Its the example such as the one with the polish worker that i brought up that seems mindless to me. Although that was a couple of years ago think they may have clamped down on it with a points system that i heard on the news a while back but havnt read up into it so not sure.

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  13. i think a system where an employer would have to prove that they couldnt obtain an employee from the uk and then apply to be able to advertise the job abroad would be great!!

    Then immigrants should have to already have a job in the UK from the jobs advertised before being able to come over and once they are unemployed they go back to their home country and arnt allowed to claim benefits!!

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  14. I hope you can see the irony in debating a controversial topic while remaining anonymous. What this usually shows is that you have acknowledged that part of your argument is either offensive or fabricated which means it loses some of its validity. Furthermore, we live in a globalised world where differences in ideologies, norms and values are narrowing and there are less variants in culture. To say that someone is undeserving in a way by place of birth is to deny them liberty, it arises in the same instance of being born middle or working-class, or black or white.

    P.S. To bring up the argument that 'foreigners come ova ere to claim benefits' is shallow, to have aspirations to live in a country that offers its people a national health service, a free education up to the age of 18 and a range of other services that improve life conditions, can't be a negative experience.

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  15. im just leavin it now same as usual trying to play the racism card and not being able to give valid arguments back to the points ive made!! nobodys given me a valid reason why in the case of the polish worker it helps us out!!

    of course its not a negative experience coming over to uk for immigrants, but for people aready here that pick up the bill its not great is it!!

    p.s of course im going to keep annonymous as i knew that people would have short sighted views and just pull the rasism card out of back pocket once they cant bring a valid answer to the points i had made same old boring response!!

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