We must end the mass immigration addiction
SACRIFICING COHESION FOR THE DEMANDS OF BIG BUSINESS
New government, same old immigration ruse. We learned over the weekend that the Prime Minister wants use immigration as a means of boosting the economy. Her liberal economic instincts have prompted her into going along with calls from big business and state bodies like the NHS to import swathes of cheaper foreign labour. What is more, if the government are persuaded that there are shortages in particular sectors and specific occupations are placed on ‘Shortage of Occupations List’ (SOL) employers need pay overseas recruits only 80 per cent of the domestic going rate. Furthermore, there are no limits to the number that may be recruited. The labour market will be thrown open even wider than it was on the introduction of the points-based system 21 months ago. Why train our own or raise pay and improve conditions, or even mechanise where that is feasible when it costs so much less to recruit overseas? If you want health care and seasonal agricultural workers (140,000 have come in the past year) or even doctors, nurses, it’s not a problem, you can have as many as you like. In fact, there is a limitless supply of every occupation on the SOL. And if they happen to be coming from poor and much needier countries, so be it, that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
As if this was not enough to have you choking on your cornflakes, it seems the international trade secretary, the sensible Mrs Badenoch, is being pressed by No 10 to strike a free trade agreement with India, even if it means offering what amounts to free movement to secure the deal. Imagine, free movement arrangements with a country with three times the population of the EU and infinitely poorer. The mind boggles, what planet are these people on?
Like Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng want to grow the GDP cake bigger but as the former twosome discovered, if it is on the back of mass immigration, the consequential growth in the population simply means that the slice each one of us ends up with pretty much remains the same. Except, there are fewer homes available, longer queues at GP surgeries, fewer school places available and greater congestion. The difference between now and when Tony Blair sent out the search parties to look for foreign workers is that we have already opened the gate with the slack PBS.
Panicky, short-term strategies that allow companies to remain addicted to what Poppy Coburn described as the ‘sugar-rush’ of mass immigration, is no answer to our current difficulties. In the long run it can only make them worse. If the Conservatives want to turn things around and stand a chance of winning the next election, they had better have a rethink about their senseless plans for increasing immigration.
Blog of the week
The Abuse Of Modern Slavery Laws By Asylum Seekers
According to a former immigration minister and sources within government, the Modern Slavery Act 2015 is being abused, including by those arriving in boats. In some cases, claimants are initially denying being modern slaves and changing their story later. Modern slavery claimants have increased from 552 in 2009 to 12,727 in 2021 while the number of foreign nationals making slavery claims has grown from 2,209 in 2014 to 8,388 in 2021. Claimants being referred for exploitation within the UK have grown from 2.5 per cent in 2009 to 58 per cent in 2021. Read our full blog here.
Migration Watch in the news
See below for our appearances in the major national news this week:
‘If reports are to be believed, and the Government have not denied them, it seems that the Tony Blair government wheeze that threw open the UK’s borders is in danger of being repeated – and on a whole new scale – by a Conservative Party led by Liz Truss.’
Telegraph: Foreign students are bringing relatives in record numbers
‘It has been clear for years that a significant number of those coming to study and their dependants use it as a route into work and settlement.
‘It is yet another mode of uncontrolled and uncapped migration, often, feeding the demand for low-skilled and low-paid workers. The number of student dependants has spiralled to over 80,000 in one year. It is an area in desperate need of tightening.’
‘The lessons of Labour’s mistakes of 20 years ago of opening up to cheaper migrant workers have been forgotten.’
Talk TV: Liz Truss plans to increase immigration to grow the economy…
‘What they are doing now is immigration for immigration’s sake.’
GB News: Our reaction to Liz Truss’ plan to increase immigration
‘I think it is totally absurd and it is the last thing I would have expected a Conservative government to be doing.’
Make your voice heard
When will our leaders finally wake up to the damage caused by mass immigration? The population growth driven by huge immigration flows means more demand for homes and greater pressure on services, schools, infrastructure and green spaces. And how frustrating to watch government after government wilfully repeat the same mistakes. They promise big, be it on enforcement and control or removals and reduction, only to revert to the same old illusionary fix delivered by cheap foreign labour. And let’s not forget that the government has already broken its 2019 pledge to reduce immigration. Remember, there was a record 1.1 million visas granted for people to come and live here in the past year. You can make a difference and your voice does matter. Do write to your MP.