Immigration arguments for leaving the EU are not credible | Pertinent Problems
By the end of 2017 the UK electorate will decide its future with a simple yes or no: Should the United Kingdom remain in Europe? The last time the question was posed in 1975 Britain’s political landscape was very different. The Labour party backbenchers were the most prominent eurosceptics. The conservatives under Margaret Thatcher, arguably the most right wing prime minister in modern times, were the main ‘Yes’ advocates.
But this time around it is unlikely that the Pro Europe campaign will triumph with as much ease as before. The rise of “pound shop Enoch Powell” Nigel Farage threatens to plunge Britain over the edge and out of the EU. Fuelled by people’s discontent over immigration and alienated from the mainstream parties, UKIP managed to secure just under 4 million votes. Current polls put the No campaign at over 33% and it will be sure to gain the support of many Tory MPs and a handful of Labour ones as well. But how credible are the immigration based arguments against EU membership?
One of the main arguments from the No campaign is immigration. With net immigration at over 300,000 people a year, they argue that jobs are being taken by migrants who will work for less, leaving Britain jobless and poorer. They say that many immigrants aren’t willing to work at all, and simply come here to claim benefits from the British welfare system. Nigel Farage also says that mass immigration from people who don’t speak the same language leads to a “dislocated society”. But the argument favoured most recently is that Britain is overcrowded and simply doesn’t have enough room.
And yet studies seem to suggest a huge net economic benefit from immigrants, and of the 5.3 million benefit claimants, only 130,000 were EU immigrants. By the 2nd or 3rd generation many immigrants, like the Afro-Indians expelled from Uganda in 1972, rise from next to nothing to prosperity, through hard work and determination. These people have also shown that given a generation or two they do learn the language and can assimilate into the British people without losing their cultural identity.
Source: Immigration arguments for leaving the EU are not credible | Pertinent Problems
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The Xenophobic little Englanders throw many excuses out there to support what is a fundamental racism. I have had the misfortune to encounter many people like this while door knocking during elections etc.
They usually start by saying how their not prejudiced but… And then go on to spout various unfounded rumours or statements that can easily be debunked. Unfortunately every time one of their irrational fears is explained they come back with more “statistics or facts that “everyone knows””. It’s patently clear that they are beyond rational debate and merely look at things that support their blinkered thoughtless views.
The country is not “full”. Nor is it likely ever to be.
Migrants don’t come here to “get benefits” again the statistics above demonstrate that.
Migrants don’t put ‘too much pressure” on services like education and the NHS – Migrants being young, healthy taxpayers make a net contribution to the economic wealth of this country and provenly use less of our ‘services’ on average than the indigenous population.
I could go on but I suspect that on this blog I am preaching to the choir and that those who need to be informed of the true facts wouldn’t read this blog and would be immune to rational argument anyway.
Now I’ve depressed myself as well.
You’ve depressed me, too!
Clearly, those are precisely the people who SHOULD be reading this blog!
What can be done to get them here?
Keep your voice up. Those you call as immune to rational are forcefully or voluntarily disengaged from politics due to the likes of Thatcher and Blair and are being misguided by extreme right parties like ukip and spinning from the MSM.
Take Noam Chomsky for example, relelntless and still goes on after 60 years of voicing against the US imperialism. To say, “that his voice doesn’t get the deserved attention of the people by a long shot”, is an understatement. Unite those who are misguided, bring them back to the right path, you would need them in bringing down the evil that is David Cameron.
My argument for leaving the EU has nothing to do with immigration which is why I am at odds with Nigel Farage and I really couldn’t give a hoot if people call me names. If we leave the EU we will have our own government back, we will take in the migrants from wherever they come and they will, most of them, work. A friend of mine is working for a company who has employed a Pole simply because he was “Cheap” which meant that three other hopefuls, half his age, did not get the job and are still jobless. If JC and McDonnell do get in power and heed the advice of the panel of professional economic and fiscal advisors, our economy will be in a much stronger positiion. Labour will ensure that a minimum “living wage” is made law and “cheap labour” will be a thing of the past. There will, therefore, be no incentive to employ said cheap labour and employment will be based on merit. Without the EU telling us who we can trade with and what laws we must implement and how we apply those laws to immigrants, we can decide a fair trade. People will be better off and less reliant on welfare handouts and the exchequer’s coffers will receive the benefits of better trade, more people working, more taxes available, more funding for housing, NHS, schools and all the things the EU suppresses now. There really will be room for them and a place for them and future generations. Those who cannot find work will have a choice of either returning home to find employment or waiting around for handouts, which the EU will not be able to dictate to us. The problem this country is facing is not the level of immigration – though currently in our state of failed economic policy, it does not help – it is the Tory Government’s reckless and irresponsible drive to the bottom of the pile. Despite what Farage says, with the right economic and fiscal policies and autonomy from the EU’s imposed restrictions, immigration will not be a problem, quite the reverse, we will need their skills and willingness to work. So do call me a racist just because I don’t agree with the EU argument that Eurobots promote, Farage has had to put up with it for years with the pro European club’s attempts to discredit and deflect any considered discourse. There is all kind of bigotry, it certainly isn’t restricted to racism!
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/15/west-ignored-russian-offer-in-2012-to-have-syrias-assad-step-aside
^ Just came across this article.
There is a special place in hell reserved for the pig ****er.
On top of that Some idiotic tory supporter commented in that article that Putin has come out with this story conveniently after Corbyn’s leadership victory as support for Jeremy Corbyn.
He didn’t even bother to check the identity or the credential of the person who came out with the information.
Ignorant idiots they are, perhaps I was too optimistic before, maybe Neilth is right, they are immune to any kind of reasoning.
Maybe – but please keep your language within the bounds of decency. This site aims to be seen by everybody and I’m far more likely to trash an article than keep going through it, editing out profanities. If you want to be read, keep it clean.
Can the EU parliament be held to account by UK citizen’s?
I personally am confident that the majority will vote to remain in the EU, but I am not complacent. As I see it Farage and his narrow-minded, bigoted clique have never entered into a full and rational debate on the issue, but have always indulged in scaremongering from the sidelines. I and my family and friends will do our bit to ensure that we remain alongside and with our European neighbours and partners.
The immigrants who are coming to Europe are clean, well fed and of course have their mobiles. (See any MSM TV broadcast). Last week I, and everyone else on my (council) estate received a begging letter (or ‘charity approach’ if you prefer) asking for help to alleviate the suffering of starving children in various parts of Africa. The photo of the child on the front suggested that it couldn’t walk umpteen miles as the Middle Eastern migrants do. It hardly had the strength to offer up it’s hand with a begging bowl. Very young children (8 years old) in Kenya are arrested and put in prison (reports the BBC today) merely for being homeless. I don’t ask who we should have sympathy for. I ask if your correspondents, who seem to be addicted to what they are directed to believe by the MSM, are willing to help the children of Africa who are in a far worse state than any European immigrant able to work or walk. If so, what are their solutions? Another LIVE AID concert?
Do you even understand that you are discussing two completely different situations?
And by the way, maybe your correspondents should have read The Guardian letters page yesterday. The GMB Union are quite definitely not in your camp. Direct your ire at them.
I’ll direct my ire where I like, especially if you carry on spouting silliness.