Spoken word poet Hollie McNish spells out what's wrong with most of the arguments used against immigration. She cites as her inspiration a book by economist Philippe Legrain called Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them.
Spoken word poet Hollie McNish spells out what’s wrong with most of the arguments used against immigration. She cites as her inspiration a book by economist Philippe Legrain called Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them. (Hat tip: Adam Mordecai)
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85 Responses to “Next time someone claims that immigrants are destroying Britain, show them this”
LB
So Abu Qatada. Is he or isn’t he benefit to the UK.
The left still misses the point.
Some migrants are beneficial. Some migrants aren’t.
The problem is that we have lots who aren’t. The are consuming resources from health care, to housing, to jobs and not paying enough tax. That means others are subsidising them, or losing out because they can’t or won’t compete on the jobs front.
Hence we need to identify the ones we want, and the ones we don’t. The first we encourage, the second we don’t allow in and remove.
VDLA
Not paying enough tax? I think you should be looking at the right’s response to that. Oh- and on the job front- I think you’ll find immigrants have similar and higher employment figures than ‘indigenous’ Britons.
The left needs to comment on religious fundamentalism and ‘sink’ estates, which has been caused by failed policy from successive neoliberal governments- not the overall impact of immigration, which has been positive. The right loves a scapegoat. There are plenty of non-beneficial ‘Brits’ as well, and plenty of tax avoiders and corporate chiefs that have done 100x more damage than every immigrant in the UK- but we don’t hit them because we’ve been taught to envy and admire the rich.
Eso-Policier
Multikulti must be stopped. And Wales must be independent. Read more
http://www.esopolice.wordpress.com
David McKendrick
There aren’t “lots who are not beneficial”. There are a few who
aren’t but the vast majority of immigrants benefit the UK by working
hard; paying their taxes (Income Tax, Vat, National Insurance etc); not
requiring NHS treatment, Welfare or Social housing; and going home
before we need to pay them a pension. The money they send home is spent
in buying goods which again boost UK exports and those little shops that
expedite the movement of funds. The NHS is not stretched by immigrants
requiring treatment – it is largely staffed by immigrants. 30% of NHS
doctors and dentists are foreign born and over 60% of nurses.
Immigrants set up shops and other businesses employing not only their countrymen but also UK Citizens.
Since
employment levels are higher among the immigrant population it is them
that are subsidising the lazy UK scroungers who would rather live on
Benefits than do a decent days work. The Department of Work and Pensions
figures show that immigrants are far less likely than UK born people to
access any kind of benefits and, in fact, non-EU immigrants are barred
any access to Public Funds for the first five years that they are in the
UK although they can work and pay taxes – just not get anything back.
Illegal
immigrants have no access to our Welfare system and risk deportation by
even coming into contact with any authorities let alone signing on
illegally. Asylum seekers are prohibited from working but are expected
to survive on less than jobseekers allowance and given housing that
nobody else will stay in.
You can hardly blame the immigrants
for taking poorly paid jobs that nobody else will take. Why not blame
the employers who are exploiting them by offerring only the minimum
wage? or the government that thinks a minimum wage is acceptable rather
than a living wage. And why has nobody been prosecuted for underpaying
their staff?
LB
Doesn’t matter. The state is spending 11.5K per person per year.
We do not need migrants who earn less than 40K per person per year, dependents included.
However, if you want you could always sponsor a migrant. You agree to guarantee to pay any short fall in tax.
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There are plenty of non-beneficial ‘Brits’ as well
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Yes, and we don’t need to add to them.