We are 19
days into the aftermath of a lifting of EU regulations permitting Romanian and
Bulgarian migrants enter our shores and the first real threat of action has
been sent by David Cameron and his Conservative government
.
A proposed cap
on the new Romanian and Bulgarian migrants expected to move to the U.K that
would limit usage of emergency services intended to prevent what has been
called “benefit tourists” would also aim to deter immigrants aiming to “abuse
free movement” as Theresa May, Home Secretary’s office said last month.
However, the
tactic is no more than an attempt to pander to the populist view that
immigration is not only bad for the U.K, but unsustainable.
In actual
fact, there is very little evidence to suggest immigration would be anything
other than a benefit to our struggling economy and the denial of this is
ignorance bordering on immorality.
Numbers gathered from the Labour Force Survey reveal that just 2% of immigrants who
have joined the country since 2010 claim unemployment benefit. 2%! Where’s the “benefit
tourism” there? If anything, the migration of workers (which conversely, has
made up 98% of the immigration population in the last four years) has helped
fill the U.K economy full of people happy to work, families happy to support
their new system.
Additionally,
the Economist report that thanks to increased taxes to migrants and the fact
that majority of said migrants are younger in age, the tax money brought in by
their arrival vastly outweighs the money spent by the government on healthcare
for its new citizens.
The evidence
has racked up so much so that Cameron has shelved a report set to be releaseddetailing plans on how deal with this “strain” put on the government byimmigration after Theresa May failed to back up evidence that limitingmigration would be good for Britain.
Cameron andhis home office have since been slammed by members of the EU including JoseManuel Barroso, who criticised the U.K’s approach to immigration as “chauvinistic”
and “scare-mongering” while Austrian leader of European Parliaments Socialists Hannes
Swobada claimed that “Conservatives and the far-right have started a
distraction debate that spreads fear, hatred and misinformation.”
David
Cameron and his Conservative parties head in the sand attitude towards what is
an economically beneficial movement smacks of a stubborn child refusing to go
to the dentist despite painful teeth.
Cameron
talks of the greatness of Great Britain and at the Conservative party
conference in late 2013 he spoke of “we”, how “we” led the world in industry,
culture and sports. What he fails to realise (or does, but doesn’t acknowledge)
is that one of the huge factors in Britain’s modern success since the end of
the Second World War is thanks to migration.
The “Great”
in Great Britain in 2014 is multi-culture, from Reggae and Ska music that
entered our shores with Carribean and African migrants following WWII and the
curry houses, Chinese restaurants and many more things that came with our Asian
counterparts.
Denying
immigrations deep impact on the very foundation of British society is ignorance
bordering on blindness. Propagating that ideal by openly differentiating between
Romanian migrants and British nationals through the medium of healthcare is not
only factually incorrect, but immoral. Migrants
pay taxes, go to work, support their families and support our economy. Their
economy. Long live Great Britain. Long live immigration.
