UK Immigration: Britons Want 'Drastic Action' To Reduce Immigration

http://news.sky.com/story/1153164/immigration-britons-want-drastic-action

<sigh>  I feel loved.   

I find this the most telling (and least surprising) bit:

"The poll, conducted by Sky News as part of a week-long examination of the issue of immigration, found the people most concerned about the impact of immigration are the ones least likely to have been exposed to migrants.

"For example, 71% of people who live in the countryside think drastic action is needed, compared with 53% in urban areas.

"And 71% of people who don't know any immigrants well support drastic action, compared with 58% who say they know immigrants well."

I have to say, the anti immigration feeling in this country was one of the things that swayed me into leaving earlier then we had planned. When hubby said he wanted to go back to the States, it took me a bit to agree, but I am well and truly sick of hearing friends, family, and everyone else talk badly about "foreigners" right in front of chicklet and myself. Of course we always get the..."oh we don't me you" right after, but they DO mean us because at the end of the day, we're not British, and even if we became Naturalized citizens...we'd still be Yanks...and not British. It makes me sad, because for the most part, I really love England and I'm going to miss it, but I'm not going to miss hearing how immigration has ruined this country.

I find this the most telling (and least surprising) bit:

" the people most concerned about the impact of immigration are the ones least likely to have been exposed to migrants.

I've long said that to be the case. Recall back in the 80's hearing racism at Barnsley games, and at that time you'd struggle to see a black or Asian face in the town. It's still not as commonplace as in say Sheffield or Leeds. There are quite a few Poles and that has been the case for years. A lot of people don't actually understand the history of worker migration and therefor wher certain areas have higher populations from other countries than others do.
For example, larger number of Pakistanis/Indians in West Yorkshire as they came over to work in the textile industry, Barnsley being a coal mining town attracted the Polish.

Looking at the full breakdowns of the data (http://survation.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Full-Sky-News-Immigration-Tables.pdf), I'm extremely heartened to see that Scotland is the most immigrant-positive place outside of London, and in some topics is more immigrant-friendly than London. 

Warning - This isn't meant to be a hijack of this thread. Instead, it's a very different viewpoint; not so much as looking through the other end of the telescope, but looking through a different telescope.

The author, Michael Goldfarb, is an American who has lived in the UK for 25 years. He's often seen on Dateline London (BBC, Sat. at 11:30 lately). He's a very respected journalist on both sides of the Atlantic.

From the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/opinion/sunday/londons-great-exodus.html?_r=1&amp;

"London's great exodus
The property market is no longer about people making a long-term investment in owning their shelter, but a place for the world’s richest people to park their money at an annualized rate of return of around 10 percent. It has made my adopted hometown a no-go area for increasing numbers of the middle class.

And it’s not just those who work in London’s financial district, the City, who buy in. Hot money from China, Singapore, India and other countries with fast-growing economies and short traditions of good governance is pouring into London."

While not what the Sky poll was about, it's another view of immigration; the immigration of wealth and it's consequences.

Well that can't possibly be true, because Maggie and Ronnie and Ayn taught us all how the rich are the best people in the world who care so much about the rest of us, and we should be grateful for all the crumbs they let fall to us scummy non-rich people. If they're buying up all the property and pricing non-rich people out, it must be because that's the best thing to do. </sarcasm>

Yep, good old Milton Friedman 'trickle down' economics. 

In the vox-pop shown on Sky today during the Teresa May interview, the main objection voiced was those immigrants coming here and 'taking', while not giving anything in return.

In light of that, I found this paragraph of Goldfarb's article to be interesting:

"And as for services, the minimal tax paid by those who have made property into money means that a city whose population has increased by 14 percent in the last decade can’t afford to build new schools. There will be a capacity shortfall of an estimated 90,000 places by 2015. Children won’t be turned away from school, but class sizes will grow to untenable proportions."   

Started a long post but gave up.....

I enjoyed this commentary piece concerning a recent Theresa May speech about 'health care tourists', anti-immigration 'feelings', and 'hard-working' people with these 'feelings'...blah blah blah blah...

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/12/theresa-may-health-tourism-facts

I guess what really bothers me is this perception that immigrants are here to live off of benefits, which non-EU immigrants get nothing until they have lived in the country for several years legally.

I can certainly see the EU freedom of movement and equal rights draining the system more than before (if the article is to be believed as many as 600,000).  But I bet many EU immigrants came to the UK for the opportunity of a better life through employment and education, not to mooch off the system.

Not to go too far into the weeds, but I do think the UK benefits system is too generous....  I know one person on benefits in the UK.  She got fired from her job last year for stealing (it was a minor thing... her story is she took nail polish remover off the shelf to remove her polish as polish was against store policy.  Bottom line, she didn't pay for it, and was fired).  During this time she found out she was pregnant (already had one child).  Her partner "moved out" so that she can get the rent and council tax on her flat fully paid and she gets a rather generous monthly allowance(?  not sure if that's the right word).  She still takes holidays, has a national trust membership and is always off somewhere new and lovely, enjoys baking cakes for anyone and everyone for any and all special occasions.  And now they are talking about having a 3rd child as they will get a bigger house....       I can't help it... this bothers me...  yet according to the media, I'm one of the bad guys.

I guess what really bothers me is this perception that immigrants are here to live off of benefits, which non-EU immigrants get nothing until they have lived in the country for several years legally.

I can certainly see the EU freedom of movement and equal rights draining the system more than before (if the article is to be believed as many as 600,000).  But I bet many EU immigrants came to the UK for the opportunity of a better life through employment and education, not to mooch off the system.

Not to go too far into the weeds, but I do think the UK benefits system is too generous....  I know one person on benefits in the UK.  She got fired from her job last year for stealing (it was a minor thing... her story is she took nail polish remover off the shelf to remove her polish as polish was against store policy.  Bottom line, she didn't pay for it, and was fired).  During this time she found out she was pregnant (already had one child).  Her partner "moved out" so that she can get the rent and council tax on her flat fully paid and she gets a rather generous monthly allowance(?  not sure if that's the right word).  She still takes holidays, has a national trust membership and is always off somewhere new and lovely, enjoys baking cakes for anyone and everyone for any and all special occasions.  And now they are talking about having a 3rd child as they will get a bigger house....       I can't help it... this bothers me...  yet according to the media, I'm one of the bad guys.

First of all the EU Commission is calling for some facts behind those EU immigrant claims:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24522653

Apparently the UK figures are cooked.

But more importantly, about UK benefits, we must remember that the majority of 'benefits' go to the elderly.

Listen, the 1%, or as I like to think of it, the 5%, they love when we turn on one another. Poor students gnashing their teeth at poor old people. Working class folk against working class. Single mothers shamed. They play us like a cheap fiddle. I have more sympathy for a junkie in the gutter than some vile financial analyst who manipulates data to rob people of their pensions and then claim to be too big to fail. The junkie may be a failure, but this other guy is cold blooded and self-aware.

Listen, the 1%, or as I like to think of it, the 5%, they love when we turn on one another. Poor students gnashing their teeth at poor old people. Working class folk against working class. Single mothers shamed. They play us like a cheap fiddle. I have more sympathy for a junkie in the gutter than some vile financial analyst who manipulates data to rob people of their pensions and then claim to be too big to fail. The junkie may be a failure, but this other guy is cold blooded and self-aware.

I couldn't agree more!

Started a long post but gave up.....

 

I couldn't agree more!

Me too!