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)
85 Responses to “Next time someone claims that immigrants are destroying Britain, show them this”
gavinrider
I just love the way you throw in “the overall impact of immigration, which has been positive” without any attempt to define how you make that judgment.
These throwaway unquantifiable statements are the stock-in-trade of the pro-immigrationists.
An extensive and in-depth study of the Economic Impact of Immigration by the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs in 2008 failed to identify any significant advantage to the existing UK population, so what do you base YOUR statement on?
Robe D
Gavinrider – Thank’s for your reply some interesting points :).
First of all I have no problem with people coming here in order to enrich themselves, it is normal for anybody to want a better life and if for some people they think coming here will do that then I don’t blame them! Can I ask when/what did our British forefathers create that you feel immigrants are ruining?
Part of the reason for the mass immigration after the war was obviously to make up for the number of people lost during the war, we encouraged that immigration so we can’t point the finger at other people in that instance, I think we needed immigrants at that point in order to get things going again.
You’re probably right that it takes a while for a society to adapt but Britain is a very multicultural country so if anywhere can adapt it will be here, and in a world where it’s getting easier to travel between countries, it’s something people will have to adapt to, trying to stop it only delays the inevitable really.
I’m not sure about the social dependency bit, can you link me to anything that shows that to be the case? I think that if it is it will have more to do with immigrants living in poorer areas, with social mobility being a big problem for everybody in this country, rather then to do with them being immigrants.
I also think immigrants do contribute alot to our society, they do lower level jobs for pay that British people aren’t always willing to accept, and they do a lot of high level jobs too, there are a high amount of immigrants working in the NHS for example.
I also don’t really believe immigrants are preventing British people from having opportunities, how rich or poor you are has a bigger influence on that, I think that is the real reason behind many of this countries problems (the gap between the rich and poor and the lack of social mobility). Immigrants are a big scapegoat which means we leave alone those who are really causing all these problems (the super rich and those in power).
I do however believe we need to control immigration better, but simply because I don’t think this country can sustain many more people!
Also if you did want to reduce immigration, would you then be prepared to reduce emigration?
Looking forward to hearing back from you! 🙂
Kilburnaut Mat
You don’t address my point at all.
Once again but more slowly so you can address my point rather than go off on some tangent of angry xenophobic typing again.
UNLESS MORE THAN 70 MILLION PEOPLE IMMIGRATE IN A SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME BRITAIN’S POPULATION WILL BE MOSTLY BRITISH.
Unless of course you are racistly arguing that those born here with different colour skin from your own aren’t British? If you are then I have no truck with anything you’re saying
gavinrider
Robe D – you ask “what did our British forefathers create that you feel immigrants are ruining?”
There are so many things, where should I begin? How about “Peterborough” for starters.
I know why there was mass immigration after the War – why do you think I mentioned it? It was needed for economic reasons and it started a change in British society that was accelerated to a ridiculous extent under New Labour.
Do you imagine that we could not staff our own National Health Service with British doctors and nurses? Of course we could, but we haven’t, again for short-term and short-sighted economic reasons. What was done because it was convenient and cheap now puts us in the position where we are told that the NHS would collapse without immigrants staffing it. So, what starts out as a convenience adopted for fairly minor economic advantage ends up becoming a necessity because native workers will not work under the conditions or for the low pay that immigrants will tolerate.
If there is a ready supply of migrants wanting to come here to enrich themselves, who will work longer and harder for less than their British counterparts, then why would an organisation refuse to employ that cheaper work force? In fact, many employers brand British workers as lazy or workshy by comparison with migrants – which basically means that employers are getting away with offering lower wages and poorer working conditions than they would otherwise get away with. No wonder employers like immigrants.
Why on Earth would I want to reduce emigration?
gavinrider
I didn’t address your point about 70 million immigrants because I didn’t think it was worth commenting on (and still don’t).
And you are rather annoyingly mixing race and nationality into a single argument. The two are very different.
As for your comment about “xenophobic typing” – you haven’t a clue what you are talking about.